WASHINGTON: The Union Syndicale De Personnel Navigant Technique in France demanded on Wednesday that all the A-320’s in the country should be grounded until there are “first indications” of the cause of the crash in Bangalore, according to a report published here on Thursday.
The Union considers the A320 to be “an airplane still under development,” because of the “too numerous technical incidents,” since it went into service with Air France. It spoke of 56 incidents, most of them still “unexplained”.
After the first crash in France in June 1988, French pilots union had called for the grounding of all A-320’s that operated there until the cause of the crash was discovered.
Among the airlines which fly the A-320 are Air France, Air Inter, Indian Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Air Canada, Two U.S. Aircraft leasing companies have the planes on order.
The pilot of the crashed aircraft told the French authorities that the fly-by-wire computer delayed the airplane’s response time and caused the crash. The French aviation authorities, however, rejected his argument and said he was flying the plane too low.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 23, 1990
