The Airbus A380 has evolved after the design and construction experience of more than three decades, this vast amount of experience has resulted in an aircraft with unmatched safety standard, reliability, airworthiness and profitability.Airbus A380 program has utilized the cutting edge technology in terms of material selection and structural design allowing the weight of the aircraft to be reduced as compared to its size in comparison to other competing jets in the market; this translates to high fuel efficiency and lower operating costs.The safety system of the aircraft has also benefited form the advancements in the field of electronics, by utilizing fast response alarm systems and simplified digital panel layouts.
Apart from this the heart of the aircraft, the engines are incorporated with the latest fail safe systems.(Norris, pg 20-50)Importance to safety systems cannot be neglected in any field and especially in the aviation sector it is of utmost importance. Safety management in a company emanates from the set principles of top management which results in every employee exhibiting a safety concern which transcends departmental boundaries and it can be measured by informal or formal staff surveys, or by observations.Safety must be actively managed from the top level of a company and it must be viewed as an integral strategic aspect of business management, considering the enormous amount of importance attached by the company to safety.
Therefore a functional formal Safety Management System must be in place, which should consist of adequate checks and balances on every employee on account of safety including the lower ranks. This involves the whole setup from the employee to the top most hierarchy and in this case an entire airliner (CAP 712, pg 1-12).Safety systems are incorporated to avoid conditions that can cause death, injury, occupational illness damage or loss of property or equipment.The complete safety systems employed in the design, production, operational phase, disposal phase of Airbus A380 are out of the scope of this paper, therefore the major safety systems are discussed below (MIL-STD, pg1-31) .
The first and foremost point in A380 system is the Hazard Identification, a number of methods are employed for hazard identification which are discussed below, this is followed by risk assessment, risk assessment is usually done by fault tree analysis, once this is done the pointed out hazards are removed or reduced substantially.The methods of hazard identification are as under (Wells, pg 140-175) .1) Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)2) Structured What If Technique (SWIFT)3) Zonal Hazard Analysis4) Hazard and Operability Analysis (HAZOP)These are discussed below.1) Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA): It is used to point out the scenarios in which a system might fail and its overall effect on the system for e.
g. the failure of a jet engine in mid flight and its immediate effect on flight control.The Airbus a380 has used this concept by utilizing various methods which are employed in Failure Mode Effects analysis which includes selection of a specific component, pointing out its function, then analyzing how can this component fail and what will be its effects on immediate areas and then its effects on the entire system.When all these are completed various methods are found to reduce these effects. FMEA was extensively used through the design phase of A380, with special emphasis on the hydraulic systems, flight controls and power plant, case specific studies were carried out by engineering specialists teams in the field of FMEA which pointed out hazards arisen due to some equipment designed solely for the A380 including the massive array of landing gears.
Structured What If Technique: This technique is based upon investigations that question the design of the aircraft at a nascent stage, the question posed can be related to specific equipment failure or human error or other hazard such as fire onboard, the design is then altered to rectify adverse effects of the threats posed. A380’s safety system benefited from this technique in its early design phase.
