Airbus told to make safety alterations to A380s, reports

Friday’s German-language edition of the Financial Times reports that the European Aviation Safety Authority is to demand that Airbus replace six aluminium rivets with more resistant titanium rivets on the noses of its A380 planes.

The EASA maintains that in extreme circumstances, such as a sudden depressurisation, the radome (the dome which protects the radar aerial on the nose of the plane) could become detached.

Airbus will be given eight months to make the changes, according to the newspaper.

It’s the second technical problem to hit Airbus this year. In February, the AESA announced that it was to inspect all 67 airbus A380s in service throughout the world, after cracks appeared in the wing surface of some of them.

In 2010, the Rolls Royce engines in some Airbus A380s had to be urgently revised after one exploded during a Qantas flight.