A380 Engine Failure

[beaupower32]

SINGAPORE – Qantas grounded all six of its Airbus A380 superjumbos after one blew out an engine Thursday, shooting flames and raining large metal chunks before the world's largest airliner made a safe emergency landing in Singapore with 459 people aboard.

It was most serious midair incident involving the double-decker A380 since it debuted in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines flying it to Sydney — the same route that Qantas flight QF34 was flying when it was stricken over western Indonesia.

Qantas said there had been no explosion, but witnesses aboard the plane and on the ground reported blasts. Officials in Indonesia said the engine trouble could not have been related to eruptions in recent days of the country's Mount Merapi, some 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the east.

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 damaged.

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

"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.

In another seat, Tyler Wooster watched as part of the skin of the wing peeled off, exposing foam and broken wires.

"My whole body just went to jelly and I didn't know what was going to happen as we were going down, if we were going to be OK," Wooster told Australia's Nine Network news.

Hegardy said the pilot informed passengers of the engine trouble and that the plane would have to dump fuel before it could land.

Residents on the western Indonesian island of Batam, near Singapore, helped authorities pick up more than 100 pieces of debris scattered in 15 locations in Batam. The pieces, mostly small, torn metal but some the size of doors, were brought to police headquarters for the investigation.

The engine trouble happened 15 minutes after takeoff from Singapore at 9:56 a.m. The plane landed after one hour and 50 minutes.

"The shutdown of the Qantas engine had no connection with Mount Merapi," said Bambang Ervan, a spokesman for the Indonesia's Transportation Ministry. "It was too far from the volcano — the sky over Singapore and Sumatra island is free of dust. "

The flight is a regular service between Sydney, Singapore and London. Qantas' A380s can carry up to 525 people, but flight QF34 was carrying 433 passengers and 26 crew, all of whom were evacuated by a step ladder in an operation that lasted two hours.

Qantas spokeswoman Emma Kearns in Sydney said there were no injuries and no explosion on board. The airline described the problem as an "engine issue" without elaborating.

"We will suspend those A380 services until we are completely confident that Qantas safety requirements have been met," Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told a news conference in Sydney.

Joyce appeared to blame the engine, made by Rolls-Royce.

"This issue, an engine failure, has been one that we haven't seen before. So we are obviously taking it very seriously, because it is a significant engine failure," he said.

Experts said the problem appeared to be an "uncontained engine failure," which occurs when turbine debris punctures the engine casing and the light cowling that covers the unit.

Aviation expert Tom Ballantyne told the AP that Thursday's troubles were "certainly the most serious incident that the A380 has experienced since it entered operations."

But "it's not like the aircraft is going to drop out of the sky," Ballantyne, Sydney-based chief correspondent at Orient Aviation Magazine, said by telephone from Brunei.

He said the engine shutdown couldn't have caused a crash. The planes are designed to fly on just two engines, and pilots are trained to handle engine failures, he said.

Rolls-Royce said it was aware of the situation, noting that the investigation was still at an early stage.

Airbus said in a statement it was providing all necessary technical assistance to an investigation by Singaporean authorities.

Consortium spokesman Martin Fendt declined to comment on Qantas' grounding of all its A380s, but he said no airworthiness directives were issued mandating a halt to flights by the superjumbo.

Still, the incident is likely to raise safety questions about one of the most modern aircraft, which has suffered a series of minor incidents.

In September 2009, a Singapore Airlines A380 was forced to turn around in mid-flight and head back to Paris after an engine malfunction. On March 31, a Qantas A380 with 244 people on board burst two tires on landing in Sydney after a flight from Singapore.

Last August, a Lufthansa crew shut down one of the engines as a precaution before landing at Frankfurt on a flight from Japan, after receiving confusing information on a cockpit indicator.

The other issues with the A380s have all been relatively minor, such as electrical problems, Ballantyne said.

Qantas' safety record is enviable among major airlines, with no fatal crashes since it introduced jet-powered planes in the late 1950s.

But there have been a run of scares in recent years across a range of plane types. The most serious — when a faulty oxygen tank caused an explosion that blew a 5-foot hole in the fuselage of a Boeing 747-400 over the Philippines — prompted aviation officials to order Qantas to upgrade maintenance procedures.

Airbus has delivered a total of 37 A380s so far. Thirteen are in service with Emirates, 11 with Singapore Airlines, six with Quantas, four with Air France and three with Lufthansa.

Emirates airlines, which has 13 A380s in operation, said all of them are flying as scheduled. It noted that its planes are powered by Engine Alliance GP7200 engines.

Thursday's incident appeared unrelated to mail bombs sent recently on cargo planes, allegedly from Yemeni militants.

Qantas jumbo makes emergency landing in Singapore - Yahoo! News

 

[Pong]

I remember seeing photos of the debris on CNN a few hours ago. Holy cow, that is some damage to an A380 engine.

Though it's great to hear everyone's on the ground safe.

 

[JohnAnthony]

I'm not going up in one of those buckets. I've got friends in the airline business that refer to it as the "scarebus."

Is the Airbus A380 safe? To the Moon

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I wouldn't have a problem flying in it, anymore than I would any other aircraft.

Glad to see everyone is okay.

 

[The Basket]

Yeah.

An engine going bang is not end if world.

No harm no foul.

 

[Matt308]

Unless you are sitting in the rotorburst area. Or it severs multiple hydraulic lines. Or slices open a wing tank. Or destroys you landing gear/tires. Or it takes out...

 

[vikingBerserker]

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

Never a comforting thing.

 

[The Basket]

Unless you are sitting in the rotorburst area. Or it severs multiple hydraulic lines. Or slices open a wing tank. Or destroys you landing gear/tires. Or it takes out...

Which never happened.

Modern engines are designed to contain any failure within its nacelle.

As aviation enthusiasts we dont want to be all crazy news media about this saying that this could have been a disaster and hundreds could have died.

Dont mean it aint serious but You can be killed driving a car or falling down stairs. Gotta keep the big picture and dont overdo the overkill.

I would happily fly a A380...just need someone to pony up the dough...

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Yeah.

An engine going bang is not end if world.

No harm no foul.

Unless it is your only one, or it explodes, or the turbine blades and debri break into the rest of the wing, or you lose all of them.

I have lost both engines in a twin engine aircraft on takeoff before. Good thing Helos can auto-rotate.

 

[JohnAnthony]

One issue we have in the USA is that FAA standards don't always keep pace with new technology so some aircraft get approved before they've been thoroughally tested. Problems get corrected after the planes have been in service - with passengers. I don't know how the Aussie approval system works.

But Airbus seems to have recurring issues with cowlings coming loose, not just on the 380 but on earlier models as well. And it's happened often enough to make one wonder if there are congenital defects, as opposed to operator or maintenance error.

I'm not cricizing the aircraft overall but clearly something needs to be done about the cowl problems before one of these mishaps does turn into a tragedy.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

But Airbus seems to have recurring issues with cowlings coming loose, not just on the 380 but on earlier models as well. And it's happened often enough to make one wonder if there are congenital defects, as opposed to operator or maintenance error.

I'm not cricizing the aircraft overall but clearly something needs to be done about the cowl problems before one of these mishaps does turn into a tragedy.

What cowling problems? I have not heard of any. Not saying it is not true, but I have not heard of any. I have flown on tons of Airbus aircraft as well, and never had a problem.

 

[JohnAnthony]

April 2010 Jet Blue (320) loses cowl
April 2007 Frontier (319) loses cowl
January 2010 Volaris (320) loses cowl

And this Mexicana from just last August to name a few.

It is possible that all of these incidents are due to maintenence error, I'll grant that. But it does make you wonder...

 

[The Basket]

Unless it is your only one, or it explodes, or the turbine blades and debri break into the rest of the wing, or you lose all of them.

I have lost both engines in a twin engine aircraft on takeoff before. Good thing Helos can auto-rotate.

I was talking about the A380.

 

[Trebor]

I'm glad to see everyone is ok....but I'm not an airbus fan.....Boeing lover here...

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

April 2010 Jet Blue (320) loses cowl
April 2007 Frontier (319) loses cowl
January 2010 Volaris (320) loses cowl

And this Mexicana from just last August to name a few.

It is possible that all of these incidents are due to maintenence error, I'll grant that. But it does make you wonder...

Since I knew nothing about these, I went and looked them up right after I got home. It is very weird. I would be interested in finding out if it is a maint issue or an issue with construction.

I have not found any major airlines such as Lufthansa that have had these problems though.

 

[The Basket]

Is that an Airbus issue or an engine manufacturer issue?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Is that an Airbus issue or an engine manufacturer issue?

Cowlings would not be made by the engine manufacturer.

 

[JohnAnthony]

Lufthansa has a great safety record so there may be something to the maintenance aspect - that's the other side of the argument. In fact, I always go to Lufthansa first when I'm flying to or around Europe.

 

[tail end charlie]

Losing one engine out of four is hardly a big issue, losing one engine out of two isnt a huge issue, modern twin engined passenger planes can fly and land on one engine, the big issue on this flight was that having just taken off it was too heavy to land so it burned fuel off for a while..........hardly a world shattering event, its a new plane so its the focus of attention.

 

[Matt308]

Which never happened.

Modern engines are designed to contain any failure within its nacelle.

Not true. They are designed to minimize risk of a catastrophic rotorburst via multiple engineering methodologies. If it were true we would not have experienced recent accidents/incidents and airplane manufactures would not perform zonal analyses as part of their type design approval activities.