Madrid - Airbus said Monday it would carry on with test flights of its A400M military transport plane despite the crash of one of the aircraft in Spain that killed four employees.
Workers at Airbus factories around the world observed a moment of silence for the victims of Saturday's crash, the first of an A400M military airlifter.
"We maintain our confidence in the plane," the head of the company's military aircraft division, Fernando Alonso, told reporters at the factory in Seville where Airbus assembles the A400M aircraft.
He said he would take part in the next test flight of the plane on Tuesday in Toulouse in southern France where Airbus' headquarters are located.
The A400M plane that crashed in a field and burst into flames just north of Seville's airport was several minutes into a test flight before it was due to be delivered to Turkey in July.
Three passersby helped emergency services workers pull two of the plane's six crew members alive from the wreckage. The pair, an engineer and a mechanic, are in hospital in serious condition.
The plane experienced multiple engine failure, according to a report in German newsweekly Der Spiegel, which cited comments from one of the crash survivors.
The seriously-injured survivor has so far only been questioned about the crash "very briefly", it said.
The A400M, a large, propeller-driven transport aircraft, was launched in 2003 to respond to the needs of seven NATO members -- Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey.
AFP
