Airbus probes cable-cutting incident

Airbus said yesterday that it had launched an internal investigation into how three cables were cut on a giant A380 Airbus as it sat on the assembly line.

Airbus spokeswoman Barbara Kracht confirmed the incident, first reported in the local newspaper La Depeche du Midi.

The three cables on the superjumbo were cut sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning, said Jacques Rocca, communications officer for Airbus France, a division of Airbus.

“What was found leads us to believe that this was more of a malicious act than an accident,” Rocca said. “But the term ’sabotage’ is strong and inappropriate.”

The local newspaper had raised the possibility of sabotage.

The A380 was being outfitted with electrical equipment. Rocca said the severed cables were discovered at the start of the workday on Friday morning. He did not indicate what the cables were for.

The A380 can carry 840 passengers. More than 150 of the massive planes have already been sold, with the first to be delivered by the end of the year to Singapore Airlines.