Tri-Service

Software Bug May Have Caused Airbus A400M Atlas Crash

Early indications suggest that a software bug may have been the cause of the Airbus A400M Atlas crash in Spain on the 9th of May.

Airbus has sent an alert to customers, including the RAF, instructing them to conduct "specific checks of the Electronic Control Units (ECU) on each of the aircraft's engines".

The ECUs act to take the pilot's inputs on the controls and then make the engines perform in the optimum way in order to achieve what the pilot needs the aircraft to do.

According to the German news organisation Spiegel the Seville crash occured after three engines shut down upon receiving "contradictory instructions" from the flight control system.

The crew attempted to nurse the aircraft, which was undergoing testing ahead of delivery to the Turkish military, back to the airport but collided with a pylon. Four of the six people aboard died in the resulting fireball.

The Ministry of Defence suspended flights of the RAF's A400M Atlas aircraft following the disaster.

The A400M is the RAF's newest aircraft, having taken delivery of the first plane 'The City of Bristol' in 2014. It didn't however carry its first operational payload until March of this year.

A further 21 of the tactical airlifters are scheduled for delivery by 2019. They'll operate out of RAF Brize Norton and replace the ageing C-130 Hercules fleet which is due to be retired in 2022.