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Updated: https://ktwop.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/qantas-grounds-all-a-380-flights-following-in-flight-failure-of-rr-trent-900/

Sydney Morning Herald

A Qantas A380 has been forced to return to Singapore’s Changi Airport after pilots were forced to shut down one of its four engines. QF32 was bound for Sydney with 443 passengers and 26 crew on board when the engine failed. “Qantas flight QF32 was en route from Singapore to Sydney, the number two engine has shut down, so as a precautionary measure we are taking it back to Singapore,” a Qantas spokeswoman said.

The wrecked engine after the plane landed in Singapore.Photo: AFP

Indonesian authorities said there had been some sort of explosion over the island of Batam, just south of Singapore. Elfhinta radio quoted a police officer in Batam, Eryana, saying parts of the plane had been found. “We are still collecting debris,” he said.

In a recent similar incident, an engine exploded on a Qantas flight to San Francisco on August 30, with debris tearing holes in the engine cover.

The Qantas A 380’s have 4 Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines.

The RR Trent 1000 destined for Boeing’s Dreamliner has had some problems during testing.

A month ago on 28th September, a Singapore Airlines A380 also suffered a failure of one of it’s 4 Trent 900 engines.

An engine problem on a Singapore Airlines A380 superjumbo airliner was a “non-event” in technical terms, the chief executive of the company that built it said yesterday. Singapore Airlines said the plane carrying 444 passengers from Paris to Singapore was forced to return to the French capital on Sunday when the as-yet unspecified problem was detected two and a half hours into the flight.

The A380 is the world’s largest passenger airliner and Singapore Airlines (SIA) is the first to take delivery of it, having ordered 19 with an option for six more. Speaking in Paris, Louis Gallois, chief executive of Airbus manufacturer EADS, called the incident “a complete non-event”.

“Engine failure on a four-engine aircraft does happen and nobody should think of it as a drama,” Gallois told journalists. “In technical terms, it is not an event.”

Background: (Wikipedia)

The A380 can be fitted with two types of engines: A380-841, A380-842 and A380-843F with Rolls-Royce Trent 900, and the A380-861 and A380-863F with Engine Alliance GP7000 turbofans. The Trent 900 is a derivative of the Trent 800, and the GP7000 has roots from the GE90 and PW4000. The Trent 900 core is a scaled version of the Trent 500, but incorporates the swept fan technology of the stillborn Trent 8104. The GP7200 has a GE90-derived core and PW4090-derived fan and low-pressure turbo-machinery. Only two of the four engines are fitted with thrust reversers.

Tags: A 380, Qantas, Rolls Royce Engines, Singapore Changi Airport, Trent 900 failure

This entry was posted on November 4, 2010 at 7:06 am and is filed under Australia, Aviation, Engineering, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.