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Qantas says A380 engine failure may be "design issue"

06 November 2010 01:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A faulty part or design issue may have caused the severe damage to an engine that forced a Qantas Airways Airbus A380 to make an emergency landing in Singapore, Qantas’s boss said on Friday, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
Separately, a European Union air safety body confirmed it told airlines in August to make checks after finding "wear, beyond engine manual limits" on the type of Rolls-Royce engines fitted to the Qantas jet and some other A380s.
And less than 48 hours after the A380 incident, a Qantas Boeing 747 flying the same Sydney route returned to Singapore, also as a result of engine trouble.
The A380 engine failure on Thursday, which scattered debris over an Indonesian island, was the biggest incident to date for the world’s largest passenger plane, in service only since 2007.
The incident saw Qantas ground its fleet of six A380s pending safety checks which will take 24-48 hours, and led other airlines to check their own A380s. All A380s have four engines.
"We believe this is probably most likely a material failure or some sort of design issue," Joyce told a news conference in Sydney. "If we don’t find any adverse findings in those checks the aircraft will resume operations.."
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said there was no indication foul play had contributed to the incident on the Sydney-bound flight.
Singapore Airlines resumed flying its A380s on Friday, lifting a grounding order imposed after the Qantas incident.
Singapore’s clearance of its 11 A380s -- the second largest fleet after Emirates -- will be a relief for European planemaker Airbus and British enginemaker Rolls-Royce, which lost over $1.5 billion in combined market value on Thursday.
EADS shares were flat on Friday, after Thursday’s 4 percent fall, while Rolls-Royce shares fell a further 3.3 percent to 601 pence after a 5 percent slide the previous day.
German airline Lufthansa said it had withdrawn an A380 from a Frankfurt-Johannesburg flight because it had not had enough time to check the engines before departure.
British A380 engine maker Rolls-Royce told A380 operators to perform safety checks on Trent 900 engines.
EADS also told A380 operators using Rolls-Royce engines to have them inspected.
Speaking to Reuters in Paris on Thursday at a ceremony where Chinese buyers were signing to buy Airbus planes, sales chief John Leahy said he had not received pressure from airlines about the A380’s safety.
"No concerns whatsoever," he said, asked if Airbus customers had expressed safety worries following the engine scare, adding: "We have to find out the reason for the engine failure."
One passenger aboard flight QF32 reported hearing a "massive bang" while photographs of the engine showed its outer, rear casing had been torn apart.
"The fact that it survived the damage is a credit to the design. Twenty years ago that would probably have taken the aircraft out of the sky," said John Page, senior lecturer in Aerospace Engineering at the University of New South Wales.
Passengers also reported a second engine on the stricken Qantas aircraft failed to shut down once on the tarmac, sparking fears it could ignite spilling fuel from the failed engine.
SECOND ENGINE PROBLEM
Joyce confirmed the other engine had failed to shut down after landing but said it could have been affected by the mishap to the first engine which caused parts to fly off. "We are still investigating the causes," he said.
Passengers said after landing they had been told of the dangers of using any electronic device as fire fighters sprayed the aircraft which was leaking fuel from a hole in the wing.
"Obviously in the back of your mind you are concerned about a very hot engine next to leaking fuel," passenger Christopher Lee said. "Obviously, you are in a state of anxiety."
Qantas said its engineers, along with those from Airbus and Rolls-Royce, were working to determine what went wrong.
"Rolls-Royce have identified a number of potential areas," said Joyce. "This issue does not relate to maintenance."
Rolls-Royce has maintained the engines since they were installed on the aircraft, he said. The company gets a goodly proportion of its revenues from such service contracts.
Qantas shares ended down 1 percent at A$2.86 on Friday, underperforming the broader market which advanced 1.2 percent to a six-month high.
Commonwealth Bank aviation analyst Matt Crowe said there was unlikely to be long-term reputational damage, as investors had tended to move on from previous safety incidents which have never resulted in a fatal crash for Qantas.
Joyce said it was too early to assess the financial impact of grounding its six A380s, but Crowe estimated the grounding could cost up to A$20 million ($20.3 million) in revenues if the planes remained on the ground for a week.
By comparison, the volcanic ash cloud that disrupted European air travel in April this year lasted about two weeks and cost Qantas A$46 million in costs and lost revenue.