For once, the French strike over a good cause: the A330

The Air France labor union covering pilots has called on members to refuse to fly Airbus A330’s and A340’s until the airline replaces speed sensors.

The union wants Air France to replace at least two of the three probes on each plane. A failure of these probes has been cited as a contributing factor to the plight of the Air France A330 that plunged into the Atlantic May 31.

“We made this decision following our reading of the technical messages” a union official said. “Air France communicated to pilots that it accelerated the program to replace these probes. I’m not a technical expert but it makes us fear that this is a very serious matter.”

While the mystery surrounding AF 447 remains officially unresolved, numerous messages from the plane indicated that the air speed control data for on board systems has failed.