X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.2
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 09:17:07 -0400
From: "Hitchens, Ralph" <Ralph.Hitchens@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: American whistleblower indicted in Airbus safety case
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Dave, for IP if it hasn't been mentioned yet.
This story came out a few weeks ago in the LA Times but it wasn't until
today that a blog mention (A Fistful of Euros) grabbed my attention.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-whistleblower27sep27,0,7486292.sto
ry
A Skeptic Under Pressure
A U.S. engineer faces bankruptcy and arrest in Austria as he questions
the safety of a component in the huge Airbus A380 jetliner.
By Peter Pae, Times Staff Writer
Joseph Mangan, 41, is a whistle-blower. As a result he and his family
find themselves in a foreign country with unfamiliar laws, fighting a
legal battle that has left them almost penniless.
A year ago, Mangan told European aviation authorities that he believed
there were problems with a computer chip on the Airbus A380, the biggest
and costliest commercial airliner ever built. The A380 is a
double-decked engineering marvel that will carry as many as 800
passengers - double the capacity of Boeing Co.'s 747. It is expected to
enter airline service next year.
Mangan alleges that flaws in a microprocessor could cause the valves
that maintain cabin pressure on the A380 to accidentally open during
flight, allowing air to leak out so rapidly that everyone aboard could
lose consciousness within seconds.
[...] Mangan was chief engineer for TTTech Computertechnik, a Viennese
company that supplies the computer chips and software to control the
cabin-pressurization system for the A380, which is being assembled at
the Airbus plant in France.
In October, TTTech fired Mangan and filed civil and criminal charges
against him for revealing company documents. The company said the
information was proprietary and he had no right to disclose it to
anyone. [...]