[Swissdiver]

“Concerns surrounding the accelerated rate of fuselage surface degradation”: gosh, not quite reassuring, particularly if we consider how recent are these aircrafts (first commercial flight for the A350-1000 took place just 3 years ago)! I guess the EASA (EU Aviation Safety Agency) might be biased on this topic. Let’s see what the US counterpart says.
https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2021/08/06/qatar-airways-grounds-13-a350-aircraft-over-fuselage-concerns/?unapproved=74046&moderation-hash=b31722bcaca60cd284d607829cecf3f7#comment-74046

[cwoodward]

This is something of a beat-up story from what I am given to understand.
The ‘cracks’ dispute are being published to anyone that will listen by Qatar to give leverage to a long running contractual dispute with Airbus re the cancelation of some huge orders for the aircraft that Qatar wants to force Airbus to agree to.

The ‘cracks’ it seems have been investigated for the past many months and have been confirmed to be very superficial on an outer surface skin designed to receive the decorative paint required by Qatar and not involving the main body construction of the aircraft – this finding has been confirmed after testing by several industry qualified bodies. No safety issues found per all qualified reports that I can find.

A heaven sent opportunity for Boeing of course who no doubt have mobilised resources to make the most of the conflict. Certifying bodies seem, from all reports to have little or no interest.

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weary traveler, EU_Flyer, Bullfrog, Jacob, BPP, BackOfThePlane, AMcWhirter, Frederic, DerekVH

[Inquisitive]

So many other airlines are operating all versions of A350 since 5-6 years. And only Qatar airline has problems?

2 users thanked author for this post.

Bullfrog, tomwjsimpson

[Author]

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