In an unprecedented move, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ordered Airbus to remove all of its old Thales speed sensors and replace them with sensors from BF Goodrich. Apparently, singling out specific suppliers for both a defective part and for replacement parts in an air crash situation has never occurred before. Thales was upgrading all of its sensors in Airbus aircraft to the latest version, but this move apparently was not considered sufficient. Now all Airbus A330 and A340 planes (about 200 planes) must contain at least two BF Goodrich speed sensors out of three total speed sensors. All sensors would have been reportedly replaced by BF Goodrich sensors if the company were not currently experiencing production and supply problems, according to an August 1^st article in the Wall Street Journal.

Several things are interesting about this decision. First, the cause of the crash of Air France flight 447 has not been definitively determined or attributed to the Thales speed sensors. Second, while there have been statements from EASA that the BF Goodrich sensors are more reliable based on “information they have received”. Some of that information may have been from Air France pilots, who reportedly have experienced issues with even the new supposedly foolproof Thales sensors and demanding that all Thales speed probes be replaced by the BF Goodrich sensors. U.S. investigators have not received complaints about the new upgraded Thales sensors. It will be interesting to find out what the actual data show about the better reliability of the BF Goodrich sensors as compared with the upgraded Thales sensor and whether the Air France crash was due to the Thales speed sensors’ malfunction.

Meanwhile, talk about switching costs of changing suppliers. The change to the BF Goodrich sensors is going to be far more costly than just the price of the sensors (which is being absorbed by Airbus). Just as airlines were scrambling to replace the old Thales sensors with the new ones, they will now have to replace at least two out of three sensors with BF Goodrich sensors. Sensor replacement requires a brief test flight to ensure proper speed sensor function. These tests will cause a costly operational nightmare for the airlines, as about two hundred test flights will be needed, requiring both pilots and the time for the flights and potentially causing flight delays and rescheduling. And, one would hope that the increased pressure on BF Goodrich to produce these sensors and on the airlines to get them installed quickly will not lead to any more glitches, especially quality ones.