Airbus has conducted the first test flight of a new A400M aircraft, just days after a military transport plane crashed during testing near Seville, southern Spain.
The latest test flight took off from the company’s Toulouse base in France, in an attempt to reinstate Airbus’ confidence in the A400M planes, AFP reported.
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Airbus Military Aircraft division head Fernando Alonso was onboard the flight during its first testing.
The news agency reported Alonso saying in his Twitter account: "The A400M behaved normally, all scheduled tests were carried out. This is our tribute (to the victims)."
Earlier, a new A400M aircraft that was carrying six people crashed in a field near to Seville’s San Pablo airport during its first flight, killing four people on board. The remaining two crew men were seriously injured and hospitalised.
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The aircraft was due for delivery to the Turkish customer in June this year.
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By GlobalDataFollowing the incident, countries including Britain, Germany, Turkey, Malaysia and Spain grounded their A400M fleets as a precautionary measure.
According to Flightradar24, the aircraft crashed after reaching a maximum altitude of 1,725ft. The CIAIAC investigation will depend on air-traffic control information to reconstruct what happened.
Meanwhile, the Spanish Government withdrew permission for test flights of Airbus A400M military planes that are currently in production.
Officials said that this decision will remain until an investigation determines the cause of the recent crash, AP reported.
Responding to this announcement, Airbus said it was too early to say how this decision would affect the delivery schedule for the planes.
Airbus delivered the first A400M plane in 2013 as part of €20bn programme. The company received orders for some 194 aircraft from eight countries across the world.
