Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
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Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
A Qantas plane has made an emergency landing at Singapore airport, Indonesian authorities say.
Indonesian media reports on Thursday said there had been some sort of explosion over the Indonesian island of Batam, near Singapore, at about 9.15am local time.
Tatang Kurnia, head of Indonesia's Transportation Safety Board, said the explosion came from a Qantas plane that had just lifted off from Singapore.
"We've been informed from Singapore that a Qantas plane overflying the area defuelled and then made an emergency landing back in Singapore," he told MetroTV.
Qantas says the plane, flying from Singapore to Sydney, experienced engine problems.
"Qantas flight QF32 was enroute 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 told AAP.
"It should land in about 40 minutes," she said at 1430 AEDT.
Qantas spokeswoman Emma Kearns told the AP the plane could safely fly on three engines, but that the pilot will land the plane to be safe.
Kearns said there have been no reports of injuries and that the airline has not received any reports of an explosion on board.
Police and witnesses say they heard an explosion as a commercial airliner was flying over western Indonesia and found debris from the plane scattered near a shopping mall.
Earlier, police Col Eka Yudha told Indonesia's TVOne the plane was a Qantas Airbus, which was flying from Singapore to Australia when it had to dump fuel.
He was quoted as telling the station it had made an emergency landing, but later told The Associated Press the jetliner was apparently still circling the sky.
Large pieces of debris - including panels painted white and red - were found on the Indonesian island of Batam, where witnesses reported hearing the loud bang.
The Jakarta Post website reported a loud explosion was heard at Hang Nadim airport in Batam.
Batam is in the Riau Islands province of Indonesia, located 20km off Singapore's south coast.
- AAP, AP, NZ Herald
Indonesian media reports on Thursday said there had been some sort of explosion over the Indonesian island of Batam, near Singapore, at about 9.15am local time.
Tatang Kurnia, head of Indonesia's Transportation Safety Board, said the explosion came from a Qantas plane that had just lifted off from Singapore.
"We've been informed from Singapore that a Qantas plane overflying the area defuelled and then made an emergency landing back in Singapore," he told MetroTV.
Qantas says the plane, flying from Singapore to Sydney, experienced engine problems.
"Qantas flight QF32 was enroute 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 told AAP.
"It should land in about 40 minutes," she said at 1430 AEDT.
Qantas spokeswoman Emma Kearns told the AP the plane could safely fly on three engines, but that the pilot will land the plane to be safe.
Kearns said there have been no reports of injuries and that the airline has not received any reports of an explosion on board.
Police and witnesses say they heard an explosion as a commercial airliner was flying over western Indonesia and found debris from the plane scattered near a shopping mall.
Earlier, police Col Eka Yudha told Indonesia's TVOne the plane was a Qantas Airbus, which was flying from Singapore to Australia when it had to dump fuel.
He was quoted as telling the station it had made an emergency landing, but later told The Associated Press the jetliner was apparently still circling the sky.
Large pieces of debris - including panels painted white and red - were found on the Indonesian island of Batam, where witnesses reported hearing the loud bang.
The Jakarta Post website reported a loud explosion was heard at Hang Nadim airport in Batam.
Batam is in the Riau Islands province of Indonesia, located 20km off Singapore's south coast.
- AAP, AP, NZ Herald
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Re: Qantas A380 in mid-air incident over Indonesia
Looks like there was a problem with the engine, fortunately that's why there'll always be more than one engine on large airplanes. I would think Rolls Royce is more in the spotlight than Airbus, at least for the technical part, no doubt the PR part is not in favor of Airbus.
Glad they all landed safely! A380: safe happens, a good thing really!
Glad they all landed safely! A380: safe happens, a good thing really!
Re: Qantas A380 in mid-air incident over Indonesia
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has just told the Australian media, until further notice ALL Qantas A380 aircraft are grounded.!!! They really want to know what went wrong before they give the all clear to A380 fleet again.
Re: Qantas A380 in mid-air incident over Indonesia
Video of the plane after landing: http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/asian ... merge.html
Qantas has six A380s in active service (and now thus grounded) and another 14 on order.
Emirates says it is not considering grounding its A380 fleet, as it uses EA engines. Singapore Airlines said it was not grounding its A380 fleet but that it was closely assessing the situation. As with Qantas, SIA's A380s are powered by Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines.
VH-OQA was the first A380 delivered to Qantas, entering service on 18 September 2008.
Qantas has six A380s in active service (and now thus grounded) and another 14 on order.
Emirates says it is not considering grounding its A380 fleet, as it uses EA engines. Singapore Airlines said it was not grounding its A380 fleet but that it was closely assessing the situation. As with Qantas, SIA's A380s are powered by Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines.
VH-OQA was the first A380 delivered to Qantas, entering service on 18 September 2008.
André
ex Sabena #26567
ex Sabena #26567
Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
And I felt a bit disappointed ( before the flight, afterwards I am a happy customer) that Qantas used the refurbished B747 on the BKK stretch last summer.
Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
I'm sure BA would have flown on to Sydney if this had happened to them.
Interesting to see that parts of the engine have penetrated the wing above the engine. Perhaps the cowling is not strong enough to contain an exploding engine after all?
Interesting to see that parts of the engine have penetrated the wing above the engine. Perhaps the cowling is not strong enough to contain an exploding engine after all?
Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
Do you guys think that ashes from the active volcano in Indonesia got something to do with this engine problem?
Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
Not really, because of several reasons:hakan wrote:Do you guys think that ashes from the active volcano in Indonesia got something to do with this engine problem?
- The plane was in the air for 5 minutes, I guess this is too little time for ash particles to really do harm in this catastrophic way
- The volcano is about 600km to the south of this route, IIRC. Though this is a not a guarantee (cf. Iceland), that would seem a bit far to have such a big impact on this aircraft.
- The volcano is erupting for at least a week now (maybe more, haven't really following if), why is only the Qantas aircraft affected by it?
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Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
Good old decent English quality?
Remember what happened earlier this year with the Trent 1000, http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... ilure.html that engine is certified since 2007
Not good PR for Rolls Royce at the least, you cant really blame Airbus for this. 2 (as good as) brand new engines in 4 months.
Remember what happened earlier this year with the Trent 1000, http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... ilure.html that engine is certified since 2007
Not good PR for Rolls Royce at the least, you cant really blame Airbus for this. 2 (as good as) brand new engines in 4 months.
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Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
Wing damage? Starting at the door (barely seen above the wing), start counting 4 windows forward (lower deck). Just under the "r" in Austrialia; is the gray part metal that has been damaged?
Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
Indeed it is... slightly more inward and a tad behind it is also some damage, chances are the fuel tanks are damaged too. If you're following the thread at airliners.net, there is a picture taken from inside the aircraft while it was landing, the damage seems to be pretty bad.
Thomas
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Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
It looks like there was a Bleed leak before the thrust reverser cowl was blown off, there's black marks at the forward part of the cowl...could be a Bleed air duct burst upstream the Bleed Pressure regulating valve,usually in that case there's blow out panel designed to equalize the pressure inside the nacelle in case of bleed duct rupture.
It is an inner engine equipped with T/R, I think the outboard engines are not equipped with T/R's.
It is an inner engine equipped with T/R, I think the outboard engines are not equipped with T/R's.
Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
movie at BBC with the following words at the end:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11692478
"the clearly visible hole was expanding as the airplane made its turn toward Singapore airport."
If I would have been holding that camera, seeing that hole expanding, I probably would have started shaking...
And no, I cannot imagine that BA would continue their flight with engine parts coming true the wing...
I am afraid this will be a multi million dollar repair.
Let's start a quizz: who brings the spare engine? I bet for at least a Ant-124 Ruslan or even maybe the sole Ant-225 Mriya.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11692478
"the clearly visible hole was expanding as the airplane made its turn toward Singapore airport."
If I would have been holding that camera, seeing that hole expanding, I probably would have started shaking...
And no, I cannot imagine that BA would continue their flight with engine parts coming true the wing...
I am afraid this will be a multi million dollar repair.
Let's start a quizz: who brings the spare engine? I bet for at least a Ant-124 Ruslan or even maybe the sole Ant-225 Mriya.
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Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
There's spare engines in Singapore, probably more than you think.
It looks like the hole is located in front of the front spar, in the leading edge area just behind the Slats.
It looks like the hole is located in front of the front spar, in the leading edge area just behind the Slats.
Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
According to the latest info it appears that Singapore Airlines has also decided to ground their entire A380 fleet pending investigations. Earlier they had decided to delay every A380 flight for an extra preflight engine inspection.
Singapore Airlines operates 11 A380-841's powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 970/B engines, a slightly less powerfull variant of the Trent 900 series. Qantas uses the Trent 972/B which is a bit more powerfull.
Singapore Airlines operates 11 A380-841's powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 970/B engines, a slightly less powerfull variant of the Trent 900 series. Qantas uses the Trent 972/B which is a bit more powerfull.
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Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
LOL, the engine isn't that big you know. It still fits inside the 747F, though just as loading into a mega trailer is quite a hasle.regi wrote:movie at BBC with the following words at the end:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11692478
"the clearly visible hole was expanding as the airplane made its turn toward Singapore airport."
If I would have been holding that camera, seeing that hole expanding, I probably would have started shaking...
And no, I cannot imagine that BA would continue their flight with engine parts coming true the wing...
I am afraid this will be a multi million dollar repair.
Let's start a quizz: who brings the spare engine? I bet for at least a Ant-124 Ruslan or even maybe the sole Ant-225 Mriya.
Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
I think that even a double engine replacement is required. At arrival of the Airbus, the firedepartment started to "drown" the nr. 1 engine which couldn't be stopped with AR-AFFF foam, although it's not quite as harmfull as decades ago it still causes corrossion so I doubt that this engine is suitable to use again.
Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
A nice collection of pictures from Reuters: http://pictures.reuters.com/c/C.aspx?VP ... UW&T=A&H=1
And a Reuters video: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?video ... =worldNews
Video with amateur video footage of the wing taken from inside the plane: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvid ... nding.html
Rolls-Royce recommends A380 operators perform “a number of basic precautionary engine checks”.
And a Reuters video: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?video ... =worldNews
Video with amateur video footage of the wing taken from inside the plane: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvid ... nding.html
Rolls-Royce recommends A380 operators perform “a number of basic precautionary engine checks”.
André
ex Sabena #26567
ex Sabena #26567
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Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
QANTAS FLIGHT QF32 ENGINE FAILURE / INFLIGHT TURNBACK TO SINGAPORE
Media Information (Issue I)
Airbus confirms that an A380 aircraft operated by Qantas was involved in an in flight engine failure during flight QF32 from Singapore to Sydney, on 4th November 2010.
The aircraft, registration number VH-OQA, Manufacturer Serial Number 14, was delivered to Qantas on 19th September 2008 and had logged around 8165 flight hours and 831 flight cycles as of today. It is powered by four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines.
Preliminary reports indicate that the aircraft suffered an engine failure after take-off from Singapore. It performed an in flight turn back and landed safely back in Singapore.
There were 440 passengers and 26 crew on board. No injuries were reported.
In line with the ICAO Annex 13 international convention, Airbus will provide full technical assistance to the French BEA as well as to the Australian authorities who will be responsible for the accident investigation. A team of specialists from Airbus is being dispatched to Singapore.
Airbus will make further factual information available as soon as the details have been confirmed. However, the investigation remains the entire responsibility of the relevant authorities
Media Information (Issue I)
Airbus confirms that an A380 aircraft operated by Qantas was involved in an in flight engine failure during flight QF32 from Singapore to Sydney, on 4th November 2010.
The aircraft, registration number VH-OQA, Manufacturer Serial Number 14, was delivered to Qantas on 19th September 2008 and had logged around 8165 flight hours and 831 flight cycles as of today. It is powered by four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines.
Preliminary reports indicate that the aircraft suffered an engine failure after take-off from Singapore. It performed an in flight turn back and landed safely back in Singapore.
There were 440 passengers and 26 crew on board. No injuries were reported.
In line with the ICAO Annex 13 international convention, Airbus will provide full technical assistance to the French BEA as well as to the Australian authorities who will be responsible for the accident investigation. A team of specialists from Airbus is being dispatched to Singapore.
Airbus will make further factual information available as soon as the details have been confirmed. However, the investigation remains the entire responsibility of the relevant authorities
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Re: Qantas grounds A380 fleet after incident over Indonesia
AIRCRAFT engineers yesterday warned that "danger signs" were now emerging from Qantas's decision to outsource maintenance, with a spate of safety incidents since it sent the work overseas.
Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association secretary Steve Purvinas said since Qantas sent engineering and safety checks to countries such as Singapore, the national carrier's once near-perfect safety record had suffered.
According to industry sources, the damaged Qantas A380 recently underwent its first heavy maintenance stop in Germany with Lufthansa Technik.
Mr Purvinas said the heavy maintenance check - a root- and-branch investigation in which the aircraft is pulled to pieces and reassembled over a period of weeks - would be the first focus of investigators.
He said the incident highlighted concerns about the airline's maintenance.
"Certainly I think there are some danger signs starting to poke their heads out," he said.
"[Qantas is] using various maintenance suppliers in Asia and Europe today - and they've been chosen in preference to the Australian facilities which were responsible for Qantas's excellent safety record over many years."
All Qantas safety and engineering work was once done in Australia but in recent years the airline has begun to get more and more of its maintenance work done overseas.
Such work was at first carried out only in Singapore. In late 2007, Qantas planned a new maintenance deal with Malaysian Airlines to do work in Malaysia. But that deal was rapidly cancelled after one aircraft was serviced and came back with problems.
The Malaysian deal itself came just months after Qantas's own auditors raised serious concerns about the airline's Singapore contractor, Singapore Airlines Engineering Company. Their report cited problems such as screws left scattered on wings, cables not being replaced and substandard floor-panel repairs.
While there has been no evidence to directly link the overseas work with the recent string of safety scares, there is no doubt growth in overseas maintenance has coincided with a flurry of incidents.
news.com.au
Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association secretary Steve Purvinas said since Qantas sent engineering and safety checks to countries such as Singapore, the national carrier's once near-perfect safety record had suffered.
According to industry sources, the damaged Qantas A380 recently underwent its first heavy maintenance stop in Germany with Lufthansa Technik.
Mr Purvinas said the heavy maintenance check - a root- and-branch investigation in which the aircraft is pulled to pieces and reassembled over a period of weeks - would be the first focus of investigators.
He said the incident highlighted concerns about the airline's maintenance.
"Certainly I think there are some danger signs starting to poke their heads out," he said.
"[Qantas is] using various maintenance suppliers in Asia and Europe today - and they've been chosen in preference to the Australian facilities which were responsible for Qantas's excellent safety record over many years."
All Qantas safety and engineering work was once done in Australia but in recent years the airline has begun to get more and more of its maintenance work done overseas.
Such work was at first carried out only in Singapore. In late 2007, Qantas planned a new maintenance deal with Malaysian Airlines to do work in Malaysia. But that deal was rapidly cancelled after one aircraft was serviced and came back with problems.
The Malaysian deal itself came just months after Qantas's own auditors raised serious concerns about the airline's Singapore contractor, Singapore Airlines Engineering Company. Their report cited problems such as screws left scattered on wings, cables not being replaced and substandard floor-panel repairs.
While there has been no evidence to directly link the overseas work with the recent string of safety scares, there is no doubt growth in overseas maintenance has coincided with a flurry of incidents.
news.com.au