A380 Qantas in Problems

[MainPower]

Could I say a reliability issue of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine?

I always though that the casing of an engine should protect part getting outside the engine?
However I'm sure this happened before...

[flying_kiwi]

I always though that the casing of an engine should protect part getting outside the engine?
However I'm sure this happened before...

The only certification requirement as far as I know in that regard is that a blade failure in the fan section should be contained. There is no requirement to contain parts should there be a catastrophic failure in the turbine section.

Could I say a reliability issue of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine?

Not sure if I'd go that far. This is the first failure of its type since it's been in service, and it could just as easily be a manufacturing flaw with this particular engine.

Qantas engineers seized on the incident to question the airline's safety. Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association secretary Steve Purvinas said there were just 24 licensed engineers working on Qantas planes worldwide, when there should be more than 100.

Coming from:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nationa ... 5948047085

Pretty standard stuff for the engineers union in Australia. Every incident involving a Qantas aircraft, however small, is used by them to advance their own agenda and take potshots at the QF management.

Yorden

[streep]

Qantas has outsourced a lot of its maintenance like many airlines.
So they need less engineers. They only have 6 aircraft who generally do trips of more than 24hrs out of SYD.

[smartjan]

That looks like some serious trouble they had out there!
Wondering what this could be.... Anyone an idea? I was thinking about the TIT that might've been too high or something like compressor surge?

[MainPower]

Found some nice quotes on nzherald (click for full article)

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce:

Joyce said the most likely cause was a materials failure or a design flaw in the huge Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine, which could land the British manufacturer with a huge legal bill.

"Qantas will not return its A380 fleet to service until confident the issues have been identified and resolved," Joyce said.

"On three of the engines what we have found is slight anomalies - oil where oil shouldn't be on the engines - and we are just trying to check what the cause of that could be," he said.

Are there any other A380 operators grounding their planes? Or is this a Qantas maintenance problem?

[aviodromefriend]

Are there any other A380 operators grounding their planes? Or is this a Qantas maintenance problem?

Singapore had grounded their A380s also. Don't know if or when they resumed flying.

[Ghanz]

Airworthiness Directive from EASA to be found here:

http://ad.easa.europa.eu/ad/2010-0236-E


Greetz,
Hans

[MainPower]

Thanks, interesting to read...

An uncontained engine failure has recently occurred on a Rolls-Royce
Trent 900 involving release of high energy debris and leading to damage
to the aeroplane.

Analysis of the preliminary elements from the incident investigation shows
that an oil fire in the HP/IP structure cavity may have caused the failure of
the Intermediate Pressure Turbine (IPT) Disc.

This condition, if not detected, could ultimately result in uncontained
engine failure potentially leading to damage to the aeroplane and hazards
to persons or property on the ground.

[aviodromefriend]

According to Dutch NOS TV news, Rolls-Royce has now admitted the failure is a fault in designing the engine. To repair this, the financial results in this quarter will be "less good", but they still think they will make a profit overall.

[Stratofreighter]

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... ident.html

Ahem...

DATE:13/11/10
SOURCE:Air Transport Intelligence news

Cockpit recorder overwritten in Qantas A380 engine incident
By David Kaminski-Morrow

Investigators have discovered that the cockpit-voice recording of the Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure was overwritten because the adjacent engine could not be shut down after the aircraft landed in Singapore.

But while the flight-data recorder stored parameters from the entire flight, the ATSB states that its team in Canberra have only retrieved part of the cockpit-voice recorder audio.

It says that the failure of the adjacent outboard left-hand engine to shut down, after the stricken A380 landed in Singapore, meant it continued to supply power to the recorder.

Audio from the time of the in-flight engine failure - some two hours beforehand - was "overwritten", the ATSB adds: "That said, elements of the available audio are expected to be of assistance to the investigation."

[Mark B.]

Rumors are spreading that the A380 involved is damaged beyond economical repair.

I hope/think that is rubbish, especially given the fact that in recent history Qantas spent al lot of money repairing aircraft to uphold their 0 hull loss record, but after seeing images it is quite obvious that the damage to the wing is huge!! Just take a look at the pictures in the links below..

Mark

PPRuNe:
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/4327 ... re-49.html

Picture, credit PPRuNe member Vic Cairns
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb4 ... 105-1a.jpg

[SPL]

Rumors are spreading that the A380 involved is damaged beyond economical repair.

Who's call is this? Qantas? Insurance company? Engine company? Airbus?

It's quit simple, if the damage is way more expanse to repair, then the aircraft is worth, they don't going to repair it. Even it's an 380...


Groeten Martijn

[evhest]

I don't think it's that simple in this case, considering what's a stake for Airbus and Qantas.

[Arjan]

Yes indeed. And Qantas is very proud of the claim that they have never lost an aircraft in an accident. They have once before repaired a jet ( I believe a 747 that run out of runway) that was way beyond repair. Just for PR sake!
And I don't think that Airbus and RR are also going to let that happen to a new A380.

[MB]

today in the telegraaf

http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/8236 ... buitenland