Qantas 747 Jet Suffers Engine Flameout a Day After A380 Blowout
Qantas 747 Suffers Engine Fault Following A380 Blowout
Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
The Qantas Boeing 747-400 flight QF6 which made an emergency landing is seen parked at the terminal at Changi International airport in Singapore in the early morning of Nov. 6, 2010.
The Qantas Boeing 747-400 flight QF6 which made an emergency landing is seen parked at the terminal at Changi International airport in Singapore in the early morning of Nov. 6, 2010. Photographer: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
Australian air safety officials are asking Indonesians to help recover a “crucial” part from the blown-out engine of a Qantas Airways Ltd. A380 jet that made an emergency return to Singapore on Nov. 4.
Residents of Batam Island should hand to local police any plane parts resembling a geared disk, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement on its website today. The website shows a photograph of the part investigators seek.
“The recovery of that disk could be crucial to a full understanding of the nature of the engine failure, and may have implications for the prevention of future similar occurrences,” the bureau said.
Qantas’s six Airbus SAS A380s remain grounded as the airline continues investigating the midair engine explosion that showered debris on Batam and forced the jet, carrying 466 people, to make an emergency landing in Singapore. A day later, a Qantas 747 jumbo jet made by Boeing Co. returned to Singapore after flames erupted from one of its engines.
A third Qantas aircraft make a priority landing at London’s Heathrow airport on Nov 5. The pilot had received a warning that there may be a problem with the hydraulic fuel system, Simon Rushton, a spokesman for Sydney-based Qantas, said by phone today. After landing, it was discovered the system was working normally, he said.
Qantas will announce the results of its checks on the A380 fleet as soon as possible, Rushton said.
Engine Failure
Rolls-Royce Group Plc, which manufactures the engines used on the wide-body A380, tumbled in London trading on Nov. 5 after Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce said the incident was most likely due to material failure or a design flaw.
Rolls-Royce shares fell 4.9 percent to 591 pence on Nov. 5, adding to a 5 percent slide the day before. Qantas shares dropped 1 percent to A$2.86.
The disk pictured on the ATSB’s website is part of the turbine blade system, which provides about 70 percent of an aircraft’s thrust, said Steve Purvinas, federal secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, which has more than 2,000 members at Qantas.
“It is quite a critically designed component,” he said.
ATSB officials are flying to the U.K. and Singapore today to oversee the investigation into what caused the explosion, according to the bureau’s statement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah McDonald in Sydney at smcdonald23@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net
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