SYDNEY // Qantas said faulty engine design or material failure were the most likely causes of an engine blowout on one of its Airbus A380 superjumbos, and confirmed today that pieces from the engine had pierced the plane's wing.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said it was too early to say exactly what caused one of the plane's four Rolls-Royce engines to fail shortly after takeoff from Singapore on Thursday and that a thorough investigation was under way. But he said maintenance, for which the airline has responsibility, did not appear to be a significant factor.
"This is an engine issue, and the engines have been maintained by Rolls-Royce since they were installed on the aircraft," Joyce told a news conference in Sydney. "We believe this is probably most likely a material failure or some type of design issue. We don't believe this is related to maintenance in any way."
The A380 suffered an engine blowout about four minutes after taking off from Singapore, shooting flames and shedding metal over an Indonesian island. It landed safely in Singapore after dumping its fuel.
It was the most serious midair incident involving the double-decker A380, the world's largest passenger jet, since it debuted in October 2007 with a Singapore Airlines flight to Sydney, the same route the Qantas plane was flying when its engine failed.
The plane's manufacturer, Airbus, said today it has asked all airlines operating A380s with Rolls-Royce engines to inspect them to ensure safety.
Qantas hopes to have its Airbus A380 services runng again within two days, and Singapore Airlines resumed flights on its A380s today after completing technical checks. Singapore Airlines said on its website that flights had re-started after precautionary checks recommended by Airbus and Rolls-Royce.
Airbus has delivered a total of 37 A380s so far. Thirteen are in service with Emirates, 11 with Singapore Airlines, six with Qantas, four with Air France and three with Lufthansa.
Qantas' fleet of A380s remained grounded Friday. Singapore Airlines, which also grounded its A380s after the Qantas incident, said it has resumed flights after completing precautionary checks.
Lufthansa said it was still conducting inspections but expected to be able to fly an A380 from Frankfurt to Tokyo as scheduled Friday. On Thursday, it held back an A380 for checks and instead flew an A340-600 on a flight from Frankfurt to Johannesburg, airline spokesmen said.
Emirates airlines said all of its A380s are flying as scheduled, and its planes are not powered by Rolls-Royce engines.
Mr Joyce said Qantas would complete its checks within 24 to 48 hours, and if no problems are found the planes would resume flying.
He confirmed that the engine failure caused damage to the plane's wing.
"Parts of the engine did go into the wing of the aircraft … that was part of what made this a significant engine failure," he said.
The engine closest to the fuselage on the left wing had visible burn marks and was missing a plate section painted with the red kangaroo logo of the airline. The upper part of the left wing had raised and torn metal.
Ian Sangston, general manager of air safety investigation at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, said the faulty engine was being removed for inspection and the rest of the plane was being examined, too. The flight data and cockpit voice recorders had been recovered and brought to Australia, where their contents would be analysed.
Key clues to what happened, and why, would probably come from the debris that was scattered across Batam island in Indonesia when the blowout occurred. No one was injured by the falling material, which included more than 100 pieces, some as large as doors.
"We've got to gather those items from Batam, which will probably prove very interesting to our technical people as in they will show fracture surfaces and so on," Mr Sangston told a news conference in Canberra, the Australian capital.
He said there was no suggestion maintenance workers may have been responsible for the engine blowout, but cautioned that the investigation was in its very early stages.
Mr Sangston said it was the first such incident involving the combination of an A380 and the type of engine, a Trent 900.
The agency will issue a preliminary report by December 3, though the full investigation could take one year, Mr Sangston said.
The stricken A380 was carrying 440 passengers and 26 crew. The passengers were flown to Australia on other flights today.
AP
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
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Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
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