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Qantas A380 Scare: Aviation Alert

  • November 5th, 2010
  • Posted by EUEditor

airbus-a380.jpgAviation engineers and safety personnel have scrambled to Singapore and the nearby Indonesian Island of Batam to probe a destructive engine failure (4.11.10) on a Qantas flight out of Singapore.

SWIFT ACTION FOLLOWING EMERGENCY

airbus-sky-news.jpgPassengers heard two explosive sounds and saw pieces fly off the engine casing as pilots on the Airbus 380  – the world’s largest airliner – responded to warning messages and turned the aircraft back to land safely at Changi.

Pilots and engineers have been pointing to the importance of the “uncontained engine failure”; not quite a devastating explosion, the break-down did shatter a heavy canopy meant to stop pieces flying off and endangering the aircraft structure.

Pieces rained down on Batam Island, some crashing into a school, with a child injured; the two-decker aircraft was carrying  459 passengers and crew.

ALERT COULD GO WORLDWIDE?

airbus-logo.jpgQantas has grounded all six A380s in its service, but this was one of the first to start carrying passengers, and there is now a total of 37 on scheduled flights – the other airlines being Air France-KLM, Emirates, Lufthansa and Singapore. Hundreds more A380s are on order.

The aircraft has been taking off commercially; Deutsche Welle today .reprising its coverage from the Farnborough Air Show last July, when buyers lined up to sign orders  on location.

“The Franco-German company Airbus was positively bullish after selling 130 planes and securing pledges for the future purchase of a further 122 …”, said that report.

The Age newspaper reports today that the European Aviation Safety Agency has a warning out on A380 engines, a directive noting that premature wear has been detected, “potentially causing the spinning turbines to move towards the rear of the engine and strike static parts.”

Reference

Airbus Industrie, Toulouse, (home).http://www.airbus.com/, (5.11.10).

Paul Colgan, “Airbus A380 back in the news for all the wrong reasons”, The Australian, Sydney, 5.11.10. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/airbus-a380-back-in-the-news-for-all-the-wrong-reasons/story-e6frg8rf-1225948079397, (5.11.10).

Mark Hallam (AFP/dpa/Reuters), Rob Turner, “Airbus decrees recession ‘definitively over’ after positive air show”, DWE, Bonn, 23.7.10. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5827474,00.html, (5.11.10).

Andrew Heasley, “Explosion grounds Qantas Airbus fleet”, The Age, Melbourne, 5.11.10. http://www.theage.com.au/national/explosion-grounds-qantas-airbus-fleet-20101104-17fvo.html, (5.11.10).

Pictures   Airbus Industrie, Sky News