Planes grounded
SYDNEY (AP) — Australia’s Qantas Airways said Wednesday it was temporarily grounding one of its A380 superjumbos after discovering dozens of hairline cracks in its wings during a maintenance inspection.
The Australian flagship carrier said the 36 small fissures posed no threat to safety, and that the cracks were different from the cracks that manufacturer Airbus found in metal brackets inside the wings of two jets last month. That discovery prompted Europe’s air safety authority to order the inspection of nearly a third of the world’s A380s.
Qantas workers found the cracks, measuring less than 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) long, in the “wing rib feet” — the metal brackets that connect the wing’s ribs to its skin.
Qantas is working to repair the cracks and said it expects the plane to be back in the air within a week.