MissionMode Corporate Blog

Airbus asks airlines for spare Koito seats for tests

Business Week reports on March 4, 2010 that Airbus SAS has asked airline operators to help in gathering spare Koito seats for their destructive testing.  After Koito confessed in February 2010 that they had produced flawed seats for years, Airbus and Boeing decided to run more tests.  

Investigating the cause of the faults by Koito results in the delay of repair plans for the seats. While the European aerospace regulator EASA said that there is no "immediate threat to safety of flight for aircraft equipped with Koito seats," they will continue to monitor the results of testing.  the US FAA is also conducting a similar review in relation to Boeing Aircraft.

Business is being redirected potentially to other seat makers, including Geven SpA, an Italian seat manufacturer.

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Airbus, Boeing begin testing Koito seats

According to an article by Michael Mecham in Aviationweek.com, both Airbus and Boeing expect an update by late February on the safety of Koito Industries' seats after Koito confirmed that it breached safety rules over several years.  As a result, Koito had their license withdrawn because of unregistered product changes and potential safety issues.

Tests by Koito include crashworthiness and flammability testing on all classes of seat.  If the test turn out to be negative, as many as 150,000 on 1,000 aircraft could be affected.

The first indication that there might be problems with Koito's seats was last year when Koito was accused of falsifying records on its flammability tests -- problems that both Airbus and Boeing had investigated and led to believe was corrected.

Although a suspension of production rights was not mandated by the FAA, the European Aviation Safety Agency did so in September 2009.  Only in February 2010 did Koito admit that it had falsified test results and made unauthorized design changes to its airline seats.

Delays in new aircraft delivery are already becoming evident as a result of this deception.  

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