An Airbus A400M aircraft crashed near Sevilla airport, in Spain, at 12:57 pm local time killing 4 crew members and injuring 2.
On May, 9, the Airbus A400M with the serial number MSN023, departed from Sevilla Airport at 12:45 pm local time for the first production flight crashed to the northwest of the airport.
Four of the six crew members, all Airbus Defence and Space employees of Spanish nationality, died in the incident. According to the last press release, the 2 remaining crew members are currently in hospital in a serious condition.
MSN023 was foreseen to be the third aircraft to be delivered to the Turkish Air Force, whose formal delivery was scheduled for June 2015.
The A400M, using callsign CASA423 was tracked by Flightradar24 via ADS-B: according to the charts posted after the incident, it reached a maximum speed of 173 kts at an altitude of 1,725 feet, then it started descending.
The last log, shows the plane has hit the ground at 167 knots with a vertical speed of about -3,000 feet per minute.
A nice head-on combo image of the Airbus A350 and Airbus A380 during Farnborough International Airshow 2014.
Even if the F-35 saga is what most people will remember about this year’s edition, Farnborough International Airshow, in UK, featured several other highlights, including, as always, some stunning air displays by huge commercial planes.
Among them, the demo of Boeing 787-9, the newest and biggest version of the Dreamliner, with some stunning maneuvers performed by the 280-seat passenger planes, and the displays of the A350 and A380.
The Airbus planes flew their displays in sequence: as the cool image above, taken by Rich Cooper, shows while the Airbus A380 (which was preceded by an A400M Grizzly) was coming to land at the end, the A350 took off to perform its demo flight.
On Feb. 19, an Airbus A-400M “Grizzly” testplane made a quick visit to Keflavik International Airport to perform multiple crosswing landings. The Aviationist reporter Eggert Norðdahl was there to take the following pictures of the testing activity.
The Airbus A-400M registration F-WWMZ (c/n. 006), arrived just after daylight (in the morning) and performed multiple crosswind landings followed by taxi back and take-off from RWY 20. During the activities the tactical airlifter was observed performing approaches of approx. 30 degrees of crab, for incredibly short-landing rolls.
Noteworthy, Keflavik had winds from 080 degrees, at 30 knots, with gusting up to 47 knots.
Image credit: screenshot from FR24.com
This “crosswind storm” knocked down a brand new GSM Tele-Communication mast at the Keflavík Ásbrú district (at the old US Naval Station Keflavík Military area) – and Swedish JAS-39 Gripen and Finnish F/A-18 fighter jets (involved in IAM-2014) temporarily based at the airport were forced to cancel their sorties.
Only a few Norwegian “Shark” aircraft (F-16s) (as wel as a Dutch KDC-10 tanker) took off to perform their “Iceland Air Policing” mission.
The Airbus Grizzly also performed four landings on RWY 11 (into the wind) then pulled in for fuel-stop (and Customs checks) and perhaps a little rest. Later on the same day it took off again and finally daparted back for Europe.
It was last noted at FL310 heading for Toulouse at 18:36 hrs.
Previous aircraft types doing crosswind tests at Keflavik during the last decades were the B-777, A-380, B-787 (twice), B-747i and Sukhoi 100-95 (the latter left Iceland on Dec. 28, 2013, after performing a gear up landing on Jul. 21, 2013).
Released by the Armée de l’Air (French Air Force) these images show the Airbus A400M Atlas tactical airlifter during its first combat sortie in support to Operation Serval in Mali.
The Atlas “F-RBAB” carrying 22 tons of material, took off from Orléans-Bricy airbase on Dec. 29 at 10.30 LT and arrived at Bamako, Mali, after 6 hours and 40 minutes. On Dec. 31, the aircraft flew from Bamako to Gao.
The first A400M was taken on charge by the Multinational Entry into Service Team (MEST) at Orléans on Aug. 2, 2013. The first operational mission therefore came only five months after the induction of the aircraft into active service.
Currently, two A400M Atlas are assigned to the MEST. The first operational mission is a step towards the type full operational capability of the type, expected in late 2014.
The tanker had taken off from Airbus’ Getafe site near Madrid and was over the sparsely populated Caceres region at around 27,000ft when the EADS designed boom detached itself from the aircraft causing only minor structural damage and fell to the ground. No injuries were reported from the Airbus Military crew which was flying the jet at the time and no injuries were sustained on the ground.
After a search, the damaged boom was recovered early on Sept. 11.
Airbus has launched an inquiry as to what has happened and the cause of the detachment, no further details seem available at time of writing.
Flightradar24.com gives you the possibility to track the entire flight using the playback feature. Just insert the aircraft callsign “MRTT014” into the search box.
Here’s a screenshot of the path followed by the Airbus tanker on the Sept. 10 test flight:
This is not the first time the A330 experiences flying boom problems. On Jan. 19, 2011, one of the Royal Australian Air Force’s
multi-role tanker transports operated by Airbus Military suffered the detachment and partial loss of the boom during a test sortie with a Portuguese Air Force F-16.
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