Qantas A380 engine failure/fire

[KK7]

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/11/0 ... aiure.html

Qantas Airways Ltd. has grounded its fleet of Airbus A380 jumbo jets after one of the planes made an emergency landing in Singapore due to mid-air engine trouble, the company said Thursday.

A Qantas Airbus A380 like this one was forced to make an emergency landing on Thursday. (Rick Rycroft/Associated Press)
One of the A380's four engines shut down shortly after it took off from Singapore bound for Sydney, Qantas spokeswoman Emma Kearns said. She said the plane can fly on three engines, but the pilot returned to Singapore to be safe.

The jet carrying 440 passengers and 26 crew landed safely, the company said.

After the plane touched down in Singapore, the engine closest to the fuselage on the left wing had visible burn marks and was missing a section of plate that would have been painted with the red kangaroo logo of the airline. The upper part of the left wing also appeared to have suffered some damage.

The airline said there had been no explosion, but witnesses aboard the plane and on the ground reported blasts.

One passenger, Rosemary Hegardy, 60, of Sydney, told The Associated Press that she heard two bangs and saw yellow flames from her window.

'Yellow flames came out'

"There was flames, yellow flames came out, and debris came off.... You could see black things shooting through the smoke, like bits of debris," she said.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted an Australian resident of Batam Island, Indonesia, as saying an explosion was heard in the air and that debris fell on a residential area.

Indonesia's most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, has been belching clouds of ash into the sky about 1,400 kilometres west of Batam, forcing the closure of some air routes near the mountain.

The airline had no immediate comment on whether the engine trouble was related to eruptions of Mount Merapi over the past 10 days.

However, officials from Indonesia said there was no indication volcanic ash was the cause of the jet's engine problem.

Qantas is investigating the incident and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in a statement that the company was suspending operations of its six A380s until "we are confident that Qantas safety requirements have been met."

Thursday's emergency landing was most serious mid-air incident involving the A380, which is the world's largest jetliner. The A380 made its debut in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines flights to Sydney, the same route that Qantas flight QF34 was flying when it was stricken.

Singapore Airlines said it has no plans to ground its 11 Airbus A380s.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/11/0 ... z14J7qExxE

[bizjets101]

News Video from a German site - includes passenger shot inflight video.


Twitter photo of debris.

VH-OQA 2.jpg (21.2 KiB) Viewed 4404 times

VH-OQA A380.jpg (14.12 KiB) Viewed 4404 times

[. ._]

Man, those engines are friggin' HUGE!

[skat0r]

This is weird but thank god nothing bad happen

[Troubleshot]

Looks like a turbine or compressor wheel let go, crazy

[alctel]

It's worth giving props to the captain as well, from the sounds of it he did an excellent job of keeping everyone informed and calm.

[pilotbzh]

RR engines are not what they used to be..... Good job from the crew.

[Johnny#5]

That'll buff right out.

[Hawkerflyer]

Tim, I think it was Al-Qaeda!! They finally realized it is far more effective to throw a printer into a running engine than place it in a cargo hold of an airplane. Either that, or . Norris decided to fart backwards into the engine.

[Heliian]

Holy shit, It appears to be an uncontained catastrophic failure of an hp turbine or rotor. Modern engines are not supposed to do this, it unbeleiveable that no fuel or oil lines caught fire after being severed by the blades. cnn has some more pictures and they show the damage to the upper part of the wing from pieces flying through. Luckily none penetrated the passenger areas, it could have easily killed someone sitting close to the engine. Aisle row for me please.

I predict a cover up though, the cost of retrofitting engines with blade containment rings would be astronomical.

[jump154]

RR engines are not what they used to be..... Good job from the crew.

I'd just been reading about failures of the Trent 1000 (based on the Trent 900) for the 787 program - not a good time for RR indeed.

[Meatservo]

RR engines are not what they used to be..... Good job from the crew.

Not that particular one, in any case.

[alctel]

Holy shit, It appears to be an uncontained catastrophic failure of an hp turbine or rotor. Modern engines are not supposed to do this, it unbeleiveable that no fuel or oil lines caught fire after being severed by the blades. cnn has some more pictures and they show the damage to the upper part of the wing from pieces flying through. Luckily none penetrated the passenger areas, it could have easily killed someone sitting close to the engine. Aisle row for me please.

I predict a cover up though, the cost of retrofitting engines with blade containment rings would be astronomical.

If you look at the video towards the bottom of this page http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11691197 something appears to be on fire or leaking, there is a lot of smoke anyway!

[RVgrin]

News Video from a German site - includes passenger shot inflight video.

That's a Swedish site, but thanks!

Video also includes some great file footage of the A380 taking off and turning.

Cool plane. I hope they figure this one out soon.

[c170b53]

The upper fwd puncture wound is in the LE composite area, the aft appears to be in the wing box which might mean some of the trailing white smoke was fuel vapor. Blades being liberated is nothing new to most designs but punctures into the wing (outside of the designated dry bays) means design trouble. Fortunately nothing went through the fuselage.

[Fling Wing]

Did anyone see the pieces they were picking up in the town? Looked like the a lot of debris, and the pieces weren't small by any means.

[Changes in Latitudes]

Fling, I was really struck by the size of the debris that fell too. That cowling was gigantic.

The captain's PA shows that a true professional was at the helm:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=46f_1288895752

[bizjets101]

Click Here Flight Global Analysis

[SunWuKong]

Same company, same airport, but B747 this time... Weird...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11702365

[Expat]

Same company, same airport, but B747 this time... Weird...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11702365

Probably same passengers...

[SunWuKong]

I really hope not!

[~Hollywood~]

There were no passengers aboard the Boeing 747-400 that were also aboard the Airbus A380, according to the Qantas spokesman.

[SunWuKong]

Few month ago (2010 august 31?) an other Qantas B747 (in addition to the Qantas B747 this week) did an emergency landing because of an uncontained engine failure, the faulty engine being Rolls Royce, the same as the one fitting the Qantas B747 and Qantas A380 this week in Singapore. 3 emergencies within few months, 2 B747 and one A380, same engine...
Emirates and Air France has different engines on their A380.
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... ilure.html


Qantas B747 uncontained engine failure pics august 31st:

[Heliian]

faulty engine being Rolls Royce, the same as the one fitting the Qantas B747 and Qantas A380 this week in Singapore. 3 emergencies within few months, 2 B747 and one A380, same engine...

Same manufacturer yes, same engine model, no

I wonder if this is all showing up now from the numerous flights through ash earlier this year from the icelandic volcano and now from the indonesian volcano.

[Rudy]

What about outsourcing maintenance to third world countries?