Qantas A380 makes emergency Landing

[offspring]

An Airbus from the Australian airline Qantas has made an emergency landing in Singapore after developing engine trouble after take-off.

There are no details about the problem. The A380 was flying from Singapore to Sydney, carrying some 430 passengers.

Witnesses on the neighbouring Indonesian island of Batam have been quoted as saying they heard an explosion as an airliner flew overhead.

They say debris was found on the ground.

Qantas says one of the plane's four engines shut down over western Indonesia, but that it was able to land safely with three.

Correspondents at Singapore's Changi airport say smoke is billowing from the aircraft, which is surrounded by fire engines.

[nopy99]

pictures can be seen here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11691543

[pk363]

And geo tv claims that all 380s have been grounded as a result of this , but it does not clarify that whether Qantas has grounded all their 380s or all the operators?

[Abbas Ali]

The incident occured due to failure of Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine of Qantas Airbus A380 and usually in such cases the aircraft type cannot be blamed. Apparently Qantas has grounded its A380s to inspect Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines powering their A380 aircraft.

Emirates A380s are powered with Engine Alliance GP7200 engines and according to Emirates officials quoted by news sources, the airline will continue its A380 operations.

Abbas

[offspring]

i must say that it was a massive engine failure looking at the pictures.

[Moin]

The anti-Airbus lot are having a field day slamming the A380 as a 'Scarebus' while totally ignoring the fact that Airbus does not make engines. No other airlines are grounding their A380 including SIA.

[Pineapple]

^ Yes they are. Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines have just grounded their A-380 fleet.

[offspring]

According to BBC Qantas alleges that the fault was with airbus and not the engine.



The engine failure that caused the emergency landing of a Qantas Airbus A380 in Singapore may have been caused by a design fault, the Australian airline says.

"We believe this is most likely some kind of material failure or a design issue," CEO Alan Joyce said, adding the investigation was continuing.

One of the engines failed after take-off from Singapore's Changi airport.

Qantas has grounded its six A380 jets pending emergency checks.

Mr Joyce said it was too early to say what exactly caused the problem, but he said the blowout was "an engine issue" and not one of maintenance on the two-year-old plane.

The incident occurred on Thursday, when flight Qantas QF32 experienced an engine failure over western Indonesia, before safely returning to Changi airport. It was carrying 440 passengers and 26 crew.


British jet engine maker Rolls-Royce said it was checking all the A380s in service - with Qantas, Singapore and Lufthansa - that use its Trent 900 engines.

The other A380 aircraft - with Air France and Emirates - use a different engine.

On Friday, Singapore Airlines said it had completed the checks and was resuming its A380 flights.

The European Aviation Safety Agency confirmed it had issued an airworthiness directive on 4 August requiring an inspection of certain conditions within the Trent 900 engine.

Thursday's aborted Qantas flight from Singapore was bound for Sydney. Passengers were put on a relief flight to Australia early on Friday.

[umar744]

Hello

Yes or No VH-OQA A380 fly back service or will it ferry to Sydney or France for repair?

I flew AF=Air France LHR-CDG-LHR A380-862 F-HFJC engine GP7200 very good

IF perhaps maybe RR Trent 900 problem again then will other airline order switch to GP7200 yes or no?

787's RR engine problem? but GP PW GE EA good?

[Abbas Ali]

In case of design flaw in Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine design I believe Rolls Royce will take steps to rectify/modify and improve engine design to remove that flaw and satisfy its customers.

Pratt & Whitney engines i.e. early variant of JT9D powering Boeing 747 engines during early days of the jumbo jetliner in early 1970s also experienced frequent break downs/failures. The engine design was improved by Pratt & Whitney and Pratt & Whitney engines were chosen by many airlines to power their Boeing 747s.

Abbas

[umar744]

yes Pan Am N735PA engine problem in JFK 20-21 January 1970 but did not fly and engine did not breakdown but Qantas A380 during flight engine breakdown

[Adnan Anwar]

It is interesting that Roll Royce has been getting quite a negative PR for its Trent line of engines. Especially before the A380 issue, a pair Trent 800 engines on the B777 experienced fuel starvation shortly before the landing threshold of LHR and almost averted a catastrophic major crash due to quick alertness of the co-pilot. Now, the Trent 900 series experienced different type of problem attributed to unexplained oil leaks in the engine causing disc shattering inside the engine.

Luckily the GE90, PW4000 and GP7000 have so far enjoyed very reliable record but I feel this can happen to any type of engine.

I guess Rolls Royce will have to embark on major PR to build confidence in its products by correcting any design flaws as soon as possible and make sure the Trent 1000 line (B787) does not experience any such problems.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101108/ap_ ... _emergency