The head of Airbus’s military aircraft division will be on board the next test flight on Tuesday of a plane that crashed and killed four people on Saturday. He says he will make the trip to demonstrate the company’s confidence in the plane.
The A400M turboprop, which was due to be delivered to Turkey next month, crashed near the assembly plant at Seville , killing the two test pilots and two of the four flight test engineers aboard. The air forces of four countries, including Britain, have grounded their A400Ms while the incident is investigated.
Airbus shares recovered throughout Monday after a sharp fall saw more than €1bn (£710m) wiped off the company’s valuation in early trading.
The aerospace firm held a minute’s silence for the victims on Monday.
It said flight testing would continue according to schedule, with Fernando Alonso, the executive vice-president of military aircraft at Airbus Defence and Space, due to be aboard an A400M that will fly from Toulouse to Seville on Tuesday.
In a letter to staff, Airbus’s chief executive, Tom Enders, said it would “demonstrate to our customers, the air forces, that we fully trust this great transport plane and are as committed to the programme and the further ramp up of deliveries and capabilities as ever”.
Investigators in Spain have recovered the black boxes but there is so far no information as to the cause of the crash. Airbus did not comment on an unconfirmed report in the German press that the plane’s engines failed.
Officials in Germany, which was an early customer alongside Britain, France, Turkey and Malaysia, complained of “shortcomings” in the A400M in their testing over the past six months. Germany has 53 of the planes on order, out of a total of 174.
The A400M was developed at a cost of €20bn at the behest of European Nato governments seeking to replace ageing military transporters. The plane’s genesis has been marked by escalating costs and delays. Its turboprop engines are supplied in part by Rolls-Royce.
