Airbus is to warning operators of A320 family Model Airplanes about the potential for an electrical fault to cause display failures as well as uncommanded rudder trim movement and control difficulties after an alarming incident involving a BMI A321 in August.
The Airbus A321 was en route over northern Sudan operating a night-flight from Khartoum to Beirut on Aug. 24 when the incident happened.
According to a bulletin issued by the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), an electrical fault led to a series of display and control problems. These included the intermittent failure of both pilots’ electronic displays and the uncommanded application of left rudder trim. The AAIB says that the flight crew also reported that the aircraft did not seem to respond as expected to control inputs and “shuddered and jolted repeatedly”.
It adds that as a result of the uncommanded rudder trim, the Airbus adopted a left-wing-low attitude and deviated left of track. The cockpit lights also switched off and on intermittently. The crew also reported hearing “chattering” from the circuit breaker panels.
During the incident the crew flew the A321 manually, referring to the standby instruments which continued to function normally.
The problem was rectified after the crew switched off the No. 1 generator in response to an ‘ELEC GEN 1 FAULT’ message on the Airbus’s ECAM warning display, says the AAIB.
The cause has been traced to an electrical problem and the AAIB says that Airbus indicates that a reset of the Flight Augmentation Computer, caused by an electrical power interruption, can result in incremental offsets in rudder trim.
The AAIB is continuing to probe the incident with Airbus and France’s BEA investigation agency. In the meantime, Airbus, in response to an AAIB recommendation, is alerting all A320 family operators that an electrical power generation system fault may not be clearly annunciated on the ECAM, and that it may lead to uncommanded rudder trim operation.
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