Sep. 23, 2009 (United Press International) -- The European Aviation Safety Agency Wednesday advised airlines to inspect airspeed instruments on Airbus A330 and A340 models, officials said.

The EASA directive, issued from Paris, is again focusing attention on pitot tubes, the small parts that have gained scrutiny since the crash of Air France Flight 447 into the Atlantic Ocean in June, CNN reported.

The tubes, which tell computers on some Airbus aircraft how fast the plane is flying, were ordered replaced by European regulators in late August. Regulators at the time said the tubes, manufactured by Thales Avionics, should be replaced with other made by Thales or Goodrich Corp. (NYSE:GR)

Now EASA is advising that the newer Goodrich pitot tubes be inspected after several recent reports indicated they "could lead to an air leak, resulting in incorrect total pressure measurement and faulty airspeed measurements," CNN said.

Pitot tubes have not been named as the cause of the Air France crash, which killed 228 people, but the doomed plane did send out error messages pointing to problems with on-board airspeed information, the U.S. broadcaster reported.