10 injured during Airbus ground tests

Ten people were injured Thursday when an Airbus 340-600 hit a wall during tests of the four-engine plane on the ground, the company said.

Nine people on board — including seven Etihad Airways employees — and a person on the ground were injured, said government officials and a top Airbus executive.

Officials said three of the injuries were serious, but did not provide further details.

Airbus Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier said that "for reasons still unknown," the plane hit a wall and was badly damaged.

The accident took place during a final round of tests before delivery in which the plane's engines were powered up full-throttle as the brakes were applied, he said.

The company said the plane had been undergoing engine tests outside Toulouse, the southwestern French city where the European plane-making consortium is based.

Jean-Louis Borloo, who heads a French government ministry on the environment, energy and transport, "immediately requested" a technical investigation into the causes of the accident, his office said.