Now it’s clear what caused the mysterious dent in Easyjet’s Airbus A320

An Easyjet Airbus A320 landed in Belgrade with a smashed nose. Neither a bird nor hail could be to blame. Now the investigation report shows what caused the mysterious dent in the Airbus A320.

When an airplane lands with its nose pressed in, there are usually three possible explanations. The first is encountering a bird in flight. The second is a collision with a drone or weather balloon. And the third is flying through a violent hailstorm.

Easyjet Airbus A320 lands in Belgrade with nose pressed in

An Airbus A320 also landed in Belgrade on September 13, 2019 with such a dented nose – in jargon, the part is actually referred to as the radome or the antenna dome. This was determined by ground staff at Nikola Tesla Airport at the parking position. But the experts who examined the Easyjet plane afterwards could see neither feathers nor blood. There was also no evidence of hail damage, because there were none on the route from Geneva to Belgrade that day Thunderstorm occurred.

Investigation report shows what caused mysterious dent in Airbus A320

So what happened? The recently published final report by the Serbian accident investigation authority CINS, which the Aviation Herald reported on incidents for the first time, sheds light on the matter. It found that the radome – which houses the weather radar and other instruments – had been crushed to a width of 92 centimeters – because it could not withstand the air pressure that prevailed when the Airbus A320 was just over Croatia.

The Airbus radome used to belong to an Easyjet Europe A320. However, due to a defect, it was sent to a specialist company in Great Britain for repairs. It was then installed on the A320 by Easyjet Switzerland with the registration HB-JXO. And there the problem arose already on the second flight.

Repair was not carried out properly

The repair was not carried out properly and in accordance with the manufacturer’s manual (Component Maintenance Manual), the report says. The company did not ensure that all honeycomb panels in the radome were replaced. “The goal of the repair is to eliminate any possibility of remaining damaged panels,” according to the CINS.

This article was written by Stefan Eiselin

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