A lightweight carbon-composite fibre was dubbed a “game changer” for the Airbus A350 when it first entered the sector in the 2010s. Airbus called the carbon-fibre skin “more burn-through resistant than a metallic equivalent”.
But dramatic images of a Japan Airlines Airbus burning from nose to tail immediately after it collided with a coast guard jet on a Japanese runway has aviation experts both stunned and worried about the safety challenges of new composite materials.
