An Airbus in the Water Again?

I debated whether to give in-the-middle-of-the-night plane crashes the time of day. Especially on Gal about the Globe, an informative online travel magazine that tries to stay upbeat and positive, despite the disastrous journeys that may arise out of our adventures. But however fantastical being a Gal about the Globe sounds, it occurred to me that safety is always an issue while traveling. So what’s the harm in addressing the Airbus’s recent catastrophic crashes? And more importantly, who and what is Airbus anyway?

Before answering that question, let me preface with a personal experience, a flashback. I flew on Lufthansa‘s fabulous first-class on one of the newest Airbuses during my April to May 2008 trip to Munich and Bavaria. But while enamored with the extra floor allocated to bathrooms alone, the horizontal capabilities of my sleeper-chair and Wolfgang Puck’s menu, I thought about the Titanic. Everyone said God himself couldn’t destruct such an intelligent piece of machinery. And, after landing back in the states, my cab driver, an immigrant with a jet obsession, mentioned that he not only saw my plane touch down, but since viewing the Airbus’s maiden voyage on the news, he’s stayed abreast of the jet’s technology. “If that plane goes down -- if something goes wrong -- you better have a Bible,” he said. “Those things fly themselves and ain’t no pilot gonna tell it what to do.”

Is this possible? I wondered, thinking of Terminator. Can these planes fly themselves and will they turn on us?
Fast forward to June 2009. Air France regrets to announce that flight 447 (an A330-200), carrying 228 passengers from Rio de Janeiro to Paris was lost in the middle of the night. Just like that, the plane fell off the radar. As news sources announced the plane reported electrical problems, it now appears that “airspeed sensors were faulty … and the autopilot and auto-thrust system had disengaged,” an icing over of equipment likely caused by a tumultuous thunderstorm. Just one month later, on July 1, a Yemeni airliner, an Airbus 310-300 en route from Paris, crashed over the Indian Ocean during its final leg of the journey from Sana, Yemen to Moroni, Comoros—just 9 miles from the island.

This, among a string of smaller, similar Airbus wrecks has prompted me to ask, just who and what is Airbus anyway?

The company, based in Toulouse, France is owned by a European consortium, and calls itself a “leading aircraft manufacturer with the most modern and comprehensive product line.” From a glance at the company’s web site, it has a few decades of innovation, a couple of “green-friendly” trend campaigns on the horizon and a nod to a sexy Paris Air Show. With a closer look we learn that it’s a company competing with Boeing, earning billions in commitments for new planes for more than 200 airline carriers.

However, the most important piece of information is that Airbus is known for innovating and heavily relying on the fly-by- wire technology; a technology that is not only computerized but also allows computers to take control of the aircraft when the aircraft is in trouble, as opposed to allowing a trained pilot to try to amend the trouble instead. And, while Airbus’s competitor, Boeing, only owns this technology on their newest aircrafts, they allow their pilots to take over and amend any trouble, if necessary.

But what is fly-by-wire technology?

According to my brother, Evan, an aircraft mechanic for L-3 Vertex Aerospace, the fly-by- wire technology is electronic. “Instead of a bunch of heavy cables mechanically sending signals to the rest of the plane (like on most Boeings), lighter wires send electronic signals instead, making the flight computerized, and saving weight on the plane.” While newer Boeing planes are beginning to utilize the fly-by-wire technology, many of its planes still use hydraulic and mechanical devices to send signals through the cables, eventually carrying out commands to the rest of the plane.

Evan also explains that the fly-by-wire technology is not only lighter and innovative, but it is very safe, as it uses multiple channels that can send signals throughout the plane, in the event that something does go wrong, and one channel is dysfunctional. Additionally, when the plane experiences turbulence, the fly-by-wire typically measures the turbulence and tells the plane how to straighten out, perhaps speeding up, slowing down, etc.

However, since Airbuses are electronic and computerized, if one piece of equipment experiences difficulties — like the speedometer icing over on the Air France flight mentioned above — it’s possible for the rest of the electronic equipment to receive inaccurate information, leading to a domino effect, creating endless possible issues. Perhaps it is also noteworthy to mention that the fly-by-wire technology has only been used on commercial planes since 1988.

I'll try to simplify: What happens when your BlackBerry is in an area where it has to search for the Internet or a signal too much? The battery dies, right? Or, even simpler, what happens when you can’t get an internet signal? Suddenly you can’t get e-mails, phone calls, or even the GPS system you downloaded to get to your next destination.

While ultimately, our BlackBerries do not fly planes, the Airbus and its fly-by-wire technology gives us something to think about. Should we be worried the next time we fly over the Atlantic or the Pacific? Should we make sure our plane is a Boeing instead of an Airbus as we learned that at least pilots can disengage the fly-by-wire during crisis? Or would you trust the computers to fly the plane instead?

Regardless of what we decide, perhaps we should accept that in the end, if it comes down to it, my cab driver’s advice is probably more accurate than my pilot’s training or a computer’s advanced technology. “If that plane goes down -- if something goes wrong -- you better have a Bible.”