Saturday February 9, 10:49 PM
Airbus A380 has hitch with escape slides: report
BERLIN (AFP) - Airbus (Paris: NL0000235190 - news) ' A380 super jumbo, the world's largest passenger aircraft, has encountered problems with its inflatable escape slides, the Internet site of the Germany weekly Stern reported Saturday.
The escape slides had to be revised after just a few flights, the magazine said, citing reports from clients of the European aircraft maker.
It quoted an Airbus spokesman confirming that there had been a problem.
The explosive charges meant to inflate the slides in just a few seconds during an emergency evacuation were deteriorating over time and becoming unusable, said the report.
During an emergency, 16 slides, manufactured by the US group BF Goodrich, are meant to inflate within 90 seconds. The slides also serve as floats to carry passengers who land at sea.
Because at 20 metres (yards) they are longer than the slides on smaller planes they cannot be inflated using the standard system.
Instead they use chemical charges, a system more like that used on airbags in cars but not yet adapted to aircraft.
To replace the faulty charges, all the slides had to be dismantled in what was a time-consuming operation, Stern reported.
Fitch Ratings on Friday downgraded the European aerospace giant EADS, the parent group of planemaker Airbus, due to "pressure" on its earnings margins and cash flow generation.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company has been labouring under delays to some of its key projects at Airbus and has begun a major restructuring programme to make up for the costly setbacks.
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