The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) aims to proceed with certification of the world's biggest passenger jet, the Airbus 380, in October, telling a German magazine Sunday it expected no more delays in the project, dpa reported. "We're on schedule," said Rachel Daeschler, the project chief at Cologne-based EASA, according to the news weekly Focus. "There's still a lot of work ahead, but at the moment everything is on schedule," she added. Airbus engineers are currently racing to overcome inadequacies in fuel pumps inside the A-380's tanks in time for an October 2 certification of airworthiness. Daeschler was quoted as saying this was vital since a 1996 explosion of a Boeing 747 over the Atlantic. "Because of that we are paying particularly careful attention to that detail," she said. Her 40-person project team was working with Airbus engineers on a new way to cope with the risk. The agency will also be closely watching a test evacuation of a prototype Airbus in Hamburg, which some sources had suggested would take place this month. Inspectors require 853 passengers to scramble out of the plane in pitch darkness and slide down chutes in 90 seconds. Airbus officials in Paris indicated to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa this week that the date had been postponed until after March 21. They said the plane to be used would not make its maiden flight until next month. Focus, in a story to hit the streets Monday, said EASA expected the rest to take place at the end of March.
