HAIRLINE CRACKS IN WING BRACKETS

Yikes! That doesn't sound good. Cutting out the crack and inserting a new piece sounds like it would weaken it, but Im not an engineer, so I hope they know what there doing.

Rob

Cutting out crack is always good.

especially plumbers.

ouch that is gonna cost some down time and maybe dely's. never good to find cracks.



Bullet

welds are usually stronger than the original material

if anything on the part breaks it probably will not be at the weld.

Not to be the humourless party-crashing moron, but the only significant thing about this case is that this is one of the cracks that they didn't anticipate. The rest of the aeroplane probably has more cracks than the number of people on board, but the difference is that they know where they are growing from, and how fast they are growing (and thus have mitigation procedures for checking and fixing already in place).

Hum...I'll wait a bit before daring travelling in one...

On the contrary, you should have a go *now* before it changes to a fast-cracking type of crack and the wing falls off!

I don't think you guys have to worry about the 380 (its a bloody nice plane to fly on). If an engine can unsafely detonate and put massive holes in the wing, reducing redundancies and crippling hydraulics systems and the aircarft can be safely brought back home.... then that is a good enough testament.


Well, i think its a pretty tough machine.

Yeah there may be cracks growing, but i can tell you that all aircraft have such deficiencies. If the cracks were deemed dangerous the a380 fleet would be grounded.

The fact that they are not and still flying is definite information that the aircraft is safe but will require maintenace down the line (as every other aircraft you fly on will)