12 April 2011

Do Air France A380 Drivers Need Rear View Mirrors?

Oh dear for the second time in the relatively short in service life of the A380 with Air France an A380 has to be removed from service because of a bit of bad driving.

IE these issues occurred ON THE GROUND. First up last October in Paris an A330 winglet tip sliced through the tail cone of an A380 parked at an adjacent gate. The guy at fault was the A330 driver.




On April 11th, at JFK in the evening AF7, operating with a full load of 520 passengers touched a Comair Commuter CRJ-700 with 62 passengers operating as a Delta Connection DL6293 service touched and broke the winglets on the A380. The guy at fault was PIC on the A380. For a bit of dramatic video... check out CNN with video from NBC New York.



So we have a recommendation to Air France. Please get rearview mirrors or a back up camera. Alternatively - please send your drivers to advanced school.

The US Authorities according to the Guardian have impounded both planes and are running a full investigation. So the plane will be out of service for a few days. That is expensive.

Cheers

No comments: