Airbus holds first A400M test flight since Spain crash

Airbus on Tuesday carried out the first test flight of a new A400M since one of the military transport planes crashed in Spain over the weekend leaving four people dead.

The plane took off from the southwestern French city of Toulouse for a flight to Seville, where another A400M test flight ended in disaster on Saturday when it crashed into a field.

In a sign of the company's trust in the plane, the boss of Airbus Military Fernando Alonso was onboard the test flight.

"We want to show our clients, air forces, that we are fully confident in this excellent transport plane," Airbus chairman Tom Enders said in a letter to employees on Monday, in which he said test flights would continue as planned.

Britain, Germany, Turkey and Malaysia decided to ground their A400Ms while investigators probe the cause of the accident.

France, which has six of the planes in active operation, said it would only carry out the most pressing flights until more facts emerge on why the plane went down.