With the safest year in aviation just gone, the latest news on the A380 wing cracks is causing major safety concerns throughout the industry.

Due to the sheer size of the A380, a fatal accident would have devastating effects on the industry and send a global message of a negative nature.

From the current reports we know that it has spanned from an early stage design fault involving the wing root and the choice of aluminium alloy and bolts used in the wing brackets.

"The A380 is safe to fly," says Tom Williams, executive vice president of programs at Toulouse-based Airbus. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he. However, European authorities have ordered inspections on almost a third of the superjumbo fleet, or 20 aircraft, after two types of cracks were discovered within weeks of each of other.

Since then, similar cracks have been found inside the 9,100-square-foot wings of at least one of the superjumbos examined under the directive.

Airbus officials said that having understood the problem, inspections would show evident cracks and fatigue, but that repairs would solve this well before they became a potential hazard or risk to flight safety.

The cracks first came to light during repairs, lasting over a year, on a Qantas A380 severely damaged by a dramatic engine explosion in November 2010 that punched holes in the wing. At first engineers were unsure what had caused the cracks, but the initial microscopic flaws led to the discovery of a second and potentially more serious type of crack - some of them up to two inches long - in the central part of the wing.

The findings caused concern at the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) which turned down Airbus's request for limited extra time to examine the data and ordered mandatory inspections last week. It seems EASA are fully behind resolving the problem and mitigating the risk of a potential accident.

The A380 was designed just before the latest generation of mainly carbon-composite jetliners, like Boeing's newly delivered 787 Dreamliner, and is about 60 per cent aluminium.

"All aluminium structures have cracks. It is the nature of the beast. Each component is designed and modelled according to the desired capacity," Williams said. If one part breaks the structure is designed so that the load is spread elsewhere.

To deal with the unforeseen cracking problem, Airbus is changing its manufacturing processes to ensure smooth operation until at least the next four-year maintenance checks. Longer term, it plans to switch to a different alloy, restoring the aircraft to its normal lifespan of 25 years-plus.

"When they had the second round of cracks, that got more people's attention and a few airlines were asking questions," an executive said, speaking on condition he was not identified. An Australian engineering union has called for all A380s to be grounded pending more investigation. Airbus has dismissed this by saying regulators would be quick to ban flights if they believed safety to be at risk.

What are your thoughts, is this simply an issue that lies with development and engineering? Or is there such a thing as too big? Should the A380 be retired from the skies until investigations are concluded? Or is the commercial profitability of the aircraft blinding owners and operators of the potential risks?