P1Fanatic

Im glad I listened to the mrs and booked Cathay as we are due to fly out to Melbourne tomorrow morning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11691197

Coffin Dodger

Looks bad, wonder if the engine ingested something though, bird strike? There's some talk that it was flying near an active volcano too....

billythekid

I thought that the main housing looked intact. IIRC this is the bit they test in a "blade off" situation? As thats the big bit that will do the damage?

The rear engine cover was fuggered, but I did not think they offered the same protection as the main cover anyway?

P1Fanatic

Yeah from what Ive seen its just external covering but thats still classed as an uncontained failure. Looks like a load of bits landed on a Indonesian island.

No one else appears to be grounding theirs yet. There was a similar failure back in Sept 09 apparently with a flight leaving Paris that had to turn back.

Simon

what would scooby do

Didn't realise subaru had started making aircraft engines...

Snazy

Just saw this on the news, that must have been an interesting flight to be on.

Leslie

Difficult to say what the "engine problem" was as opposed to issue! If it was a turbine failure I would expect to see more damage at the rear of the engine itself, unless that is hidden by the remaining bit of cowling. Could have been a burner failure, if it was a compressor failure than the rear cowling would be unlikely to be damaged. Does not look as though there are containment shields around the engine.

A compressor failure would produce out of balance forces and a likely engine surge which would produce a bang. A burner failure is unsual but could well produce an explosion and damage to the cowling.

It will be interesting to see what is stated in the accident report. I bet Rolls is a bit worried!

Les

billythekid

Airbus / Rolls should already have all the data - these modern AC downlink their main data set 24/7 to Airbus HQ.

Tell you what, those 500 odd people have been very, very lucky. There is quite bad damage to the wing, including a couple of through and through holes!!!

billythekid

Video on BBC of the hole in the wing.

Leslie

Must have been a pretty fair old bang then. No wonder they are not flying them now.

Les

RobJenks

QANTAS out source their maintenance -They will argue that their cost saving philosophy had no bearing on this engine failure.
Bollocks!

Funkii Munkii

Not in Oz they dont, my old neighbour worked as chief engineer for QF in SYD, they had a mixture of subcontractors and QF staff doing their maintenance, all 380's were worked on by a dedicated QF team.

I think most airlines outsource their maintenance away from home it just wouldn't be viable to have a team of engineers sitting about to deal with 4 aircraft a day as in QF's case.

I see SQ have grounded all of their 380's for precautionary checks before making any decisions, I guess EK will follow suit leaving LH and AF to decide what they'll do with theirs.

FlightMan

Could have been nasty this. It appears a rotor disc failed and an uncontained failure occurred shortly afterwards. From what I've seen debris punctured the wing, close to the leading edge. Don't have to tell you that the wings contain huge amounts of fuel, but electronic busses for the engines.

Rolls have to get their thinking caps on PDQ. I'd bet they have many bods looking at the telemetry data back in Derby as we speak.

Re other carriers, it's only QF, SQ and LH who use the Roller. QF use the 972-84 variant however and SQ and LH use the 970-84. EK and AF use the GA7270 engines, so they're probably breathing a little easier today.

PS. It's QANTAS. Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service.

RobJenks

The Age reported that work on the aircraft was in fact out sourced


The two-year-old plane was Qantas's first A380. The engine was fitted in February after being overhauled at the Rolls-Royce plant in Hong Kong.

Chip

At the end of the day an aircraft that had a problem landed safely and all passengers and crew were unhurt. An investigation will now take place to ascertain what happened and modifications, if needed will be made.

In the meantime another 10 people a day will be killed on Britains roads yet it doesnt even make the news. Strange world!

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Ahhh the Airbus Big White Elephant.
In this economical climate I think this is just another excuse the other carriers need to pull out.

Long live the Boeing 747

FlightMan

I love the 747 but, respectfully, you don't know what you're talking about.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

This is true .....

I just think the bigger they are the harder they will fall ??
Isnt it just too big to be commercially viable ?

FlightMan

37 currently in service. Orders for many more. Passengers clamouring to fly it, those that do expressing how much they love it.

Contrast that to the 747-800. Some orders for freighters and how many for passenger aircraft? I think less than a dozen and BA, Emirates, Virgin and Lufthansa all went the A380 route.

scarey

Qantas outsource A380 maintenance to Lufthansa Technik, so not a problem there.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

The 747 is my favourite aircraft (especially in runtish SP guise), i is way more graceful and just looks right, the A380 though a fantastic acheivement is a fat Airbus, magnificent yes, but it doesn't have the appeal of the 747 for me, however, even with the constant updates to the 747 the Airbus is a long way ahead as whatever they do the 747 is a 60's design, seeing the 380 land at Manchester the other day put it in perspective, it was like it was being placed on the ground, no noise, no fury, then a 747 freighter landed and it was all howling engines and galloping down the runway for miles.

Account deleted by request

Just had a beer with a mate of mine who works in the factory that manufactures the tornado and harrier engines.

From a quick look on my iphone he thinks it is an internal failure so no chance of a bird strike or volcano ash. His guess is one of the 'veins' that make up the rear turbine/fan. I can't explain fully as it is hard to understand but basically he thinks it is a manufacturing fault on one of the fan blades (veins) that has shattered.

He is not claiming to 'know' what the cause is but this is his suspision.

Chop

tony de wonderful

Qantas are saving money by doing their servicing in the 3rd world.

There's a big argument in Australia about the rights and wrongs of it.

I've never flowing in an A380 but I do fly quite alot.

Personally I prefer flying in planes like the 737 and A320 etc. I hate the way big wide-bodies creak and wallow around in heavy turbulence.

tony de wonderful

I always feel comfortable flying Lufthansa.

Planes flown by **** retentives serviced by **** retentives.

what would scooby do

Well,, it turns out the engine failure punched a big hole through the wing, about 4 inches away from one of the main fuel tanks.. lucky escape for all..

Wish

iTrader: (2)

the end is nigh

Scooby Soon!

Volcano ash? They I still running full airline services near the volcano , roads are a bit dodgy as I found out yesterday, but amazingly they think it wont affect the engines

tony de wonderful

Must have been scary. Big hole punched in wing, fuel leaking out, and one engine stuck on cruise power.

Dingdongler

Personally I would never fly a new aircraft in its first few years of service. Faults/failures on the whole are rare and so it will take a number of years for any inherent flaws to reveal themselves. When the aircraft first came out I told me wife there is no way I'd get on one for years, until it's safety has been proven to a greater degree.

This is a general comment by the way, not just in relation to the engine failure

FlightMan

Just heard that a Qantas 747-400 out of Singapore had to return because of an engine failure.

I wonder if they'll ground their 747 fleet now?