
The A320 first flew in 1984 and was commercially launched in 1988. Unlike the earlier Airbus A300, it sold strongly from the outset and has been the fastest-selling airliner in the world for several years.
Early on in its service lifetime, the A320 had several highly publicized crashes. The most notorious occurred on June 26, 1988, when an Air France A320 crashed during an airshow in Habsheim, France killing three passengers onboard. While the crash was officially blamed on pilot error, the investigation left numerous unanswered questions. Switzerland 's Institute of Police Forensic Evidence and Criminology later determined that the plane's flight data recorder had been substituted after the crash, throwing the entire investigation into doubt.
Most of these accidents were attributed to pilot error in using the novel fly-by-wire system. As the airplane matured, the incidence of such accidents diminished and seems to have had no impact on the airplane's huge popularity.
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