American whistleblower indicted in Airbus safety case

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.2
> Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 09:17:07 -0400
> From: "Hitchens, Ralph" <Ralph.Hitchens () hq doe gov>
> Subject: American whistleblower indicted in Airbus safety case
> To: dave () farber net
>
> 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.  [...]

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/