It's Safe' The Airbus A320 model, in use since 1988, is one of the world's most widely used aircraft. The plane can be set up with 150 or 164 seats and has a range of about 3,500 miles. French, German, British and Spanish companies own parts of Airbus, which is considered the world's second-biggest manufacturer of large passenger jets after Boeing. In the system, computers onboard the plane transmit what the pilot inputs into electrical signals, which are then sent through wires to control hydraulic valves. On conventional planes, cables that run through the airplane control the hydraulic devices which move the flight-control surfaces.
Pilots can override the onboard computers on conventional planes, if necessary.
But the engines have had occasional problems. Nance cautions that airworthiness directives ordered by the FAA for any number of aircraft safety issues are not unusual. There is no indication that a problem with the engine caused the Persian Gulf crash Wednesday that killed all 143 people on board. One witness claimed to have seen one of the plane's engine on fire shortly before the aircraft plunged into the Gulf waters, but a Bahrain air traffic controller said there was no sign of engine trouble or fire before the crash. The CFM56 engines, which have been used in jet aircraft across the world for nearly 15 years, are used to power a number of different types of passenger aircraft, from the A320 to the DC-8 and 737's.