Last year, EASA issued an Airworthiness Directive requesting A320neo operators to check airspeed during the take-off roll for potential unreliability after simulations revealed that consistent erroneous airspeed indications are likely.
Although no incident reported so far, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) voiced concern that the aircraft returned to service after long-term storage could cause multiple faulty, but consistent airspeed data.
To this end, the agency ordered a change to the A320neo flight manual to refer this potential safety hazard, and provide additional instructions on aborting take-off if necessary.
EASA states that Airbus has developed a modification to detect such instances, which could occur if two or three pitot tubes are blocked but generate similar airpeed data.
The European regulator is now preparing to order A320neo operators to install an upgraded elevator aileron computer on the aircraft within nine months and to replace existing flight manuals two months after the upgrade has been executed.
