More pilot training with standby instruments urged after Airbus A319 power loss

Investigators are recommending that pilots be trained more rigorously to fly with sole reference to standby instruments following a serious incident in which a British Airways Airbus A319 suffered an extensive loss of electrical power.
The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch has also advised BA to review its reporting procedures after the inquiry team learned about the incident only six days later, the jet having remained in service in the meantime.
After a two-year investigation, the AAIB has been unable to determine the reason for the power loss, which affected the jet’s left-hand electrical network, shortly after it departed London Heathrow for Budapest on 22 October 2005. But it suspects one of the generator control units detected a false electrical current differential-protection condition.
Failure of the network caused the loss of both pilots’ primary flight and navigation displays, the upper electronic centralised aircraft monitor (ECAM) display, cockpit lighting, the radio and the intercom. The auto-thrust and autopilot also disconnected.
If the primary displays are unavailable, the A319 can be flown on standby instruments – including a horizon, altimeter, airspeed indicator and compass – but the AAIB says: “The flight crew had not received any formal training on how to operate A320-family aircraft by sole reference to the standby instruments.”
21/01/08 David Kaminski-Morrow/Flight International