Spain withdraws permit for Airbus A400M test flights

Spain has withdrawn its permission for test flights of Airbus A400M planes still in production until an investigation determines the cause of a crash last weekend near the southern city of Seville that killed two pilots and two flight test engineers, the defense minister said today. Defense Minister Pedro Morenes said all precautions must be taken.
"It's not a good idea for those planes in the production phase and about to do tests to fly without knowing what really happened with the (crashed) plane," he said on Onda Cero radio.
Morenes said the permits were being temporarily removed by Spain's National Institute for Aerospace Technique, which means that planes in the final stages of assembly in Seville will not be able to carry out test flights.

An Airbus statement said it was too early to say how this would affect the delivery schedule for the planes. "We are working very closely with the military authorities as well as our customers to manage this situation," the statement said.
Spain's air traffic controllers said on Twitter that the plane's pilots had communicated just before the crash that a fault was affecting the flight. Some media outlets also quoted Airbus Seville labor union representative Francisco Figueroa as saying by landing the plane in a field, the pilot apparently avoided crashing it into a shopping mall or nearby factories.
"It appears that the pilot made a maneuver to try to avoid worse things happening in the accident," Morenes said today. Morenes said he had no details on the progress of the crash investigation, but called such probes incredibly complicated.

He said both human and technological factors would be taken into account but added that the possibility that the pilot maneuvered the plane in the final moments to avoid a more serious accident may provide some clues as to what happened.