Photos: Unseen pictures of the planes at the centre of Qatar Airways-Airbus dispute

An Airbus A350 jet sit idle with its windows taped and engines covered in a floodlit hangar.

23 A350s were grounded by Qatar's regulator after premature paint erosion exposed damage to a metallic sub-layer that provides protection to the fuselage from lightning strikes.

The issue began in November 2020, when Qatar Airways discovered that paint was peeling off or missing on a five-year-old A350 jet. The airline also found cracks and damage to the plane’s lightning protection.

Sporadic surface flaws on the A350s included an elongated stretch of blistered and cracked or missing paint along the roof or crown of the jets.

In some areas including on the curved wingtips, the protective lightning mesh that sits between the hull and the paint appeared exposed and corroded. In other parts it appeared to be missing, leaving areas of the composite hull exposed.

The paint on the tail of one of the A350s emblazoned with Qatar Airways' maroon Arabian Oryx emblem was pockmarked by cracked and missing paint that exposed the dull carbon beneath.

Airbus acknowledges quality flaws on the A350s, but denies they pose any safety risk because of the number of backup systems and tolerance built into the design.

Qatar Airways has argued this can't be known until further analysis, and is refusing to take more of the planes.

Airbus has argued that some paint erosion is a feature of the carbon-composite technology used to build all modern long-haul jets - a necessary trade-off for weight savings.

It says the cracks are caused by the way paint, anti-lightning material called ECF and the composite structure interact. The tail does not all contain the ECF foil, prompting a debate over whether damage there comes from the same problem. Qatar Airways has questioned Airbus' explanation, telling a UK court its similar Boeing 787s do not have the same problems.