More A380 engine leaks found
Source: Agencies |
November 9, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TESTS have uncovered oil leaks in three Rolls-Royce engines on Qantas' grounded Airbus A380s, the airline's CEO said yesterday, as engineers tried to find the cause of an engine failure on one of its superjumbos last week.
Australia's national carrier grounded its six A380s, the world's largest airliner, after an engine failed minutes into a flight from Singapore to Sydney last week. The plane made a safe emergency landing in Singapore.
Engineers conducted eight hours of extensive checks on each engine over the weekend.
Yesterday, CEO Alan Joyce said engineers have discovered oil leaks in the turbine area of three engines on three different A380s.
"The oil leaks were beyond normal tolerances," Joyce told reporters. "So Rolls-Royce and our engineers have looked at what we have gathered as an accepted level and they have passed that threshold."
"All of these engines are new engines on a new aircraft type," he added. "The engines are not performing to the parameters that you would expect with this."
Because of that, he said, all of the airline's A380s will be grounded for at least an additional 72 hours.
"We are not going to take any risks whatsoever," Joyce said. "We want to make sure we have a 100-percent safe?operation."
All three affected engines have been removed from the planes for further testing, and will be replaced with spare engines the airline has on hand, Joyce said.
Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, the other airlines that fly A380s fitted with Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 engines, also briefly grounded their planes last week, but resumed services after completing safety checks.
The Qantas engineers are working with Rolls-Royce, who manufactured and maintains the engines, as well as the aircraft's constructor Airbus.
Shares in Rolls-Royce Group PLC slumped almost 4 percent to US$9.18 yesterday morning on the London Stock Exchange. They lost more than 5 percent last week after Thursday's in-flight incident.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading an international investigation into the blowout on the A380, appealed for help from residents of Indonesia's Batam island to find a missing piece of a turbine disc which may have landed there.
The island was scattered with debris last Thursday when one of the A380's four engines failed minutes into a flight to Sydney, with 466 people aboard. The engine was shut down and the plane returned to °?Singapore and safely made an emergency landing.
Qantas passengers stranded by the grounding of the A380s are expected to be flown to their destinations within 24 hours, Joyce said. The airline is adding flights from London and Los Angeles to help clear the backlog.
Joyce would not specify how much the airline has lost since the engine explosion, nor would he comment on whether Qantas plans to seek compensation from Rolls-Royce.
Australia's national carrier grounded its six A380s, the world's largest airliner, after an engine failed minutes into a flight from Singapore to Sydney last week. The plane made a safe emergency landing in Singapore.
Engineers conducted eight hours of extensive checks on each engine over the weekend.
Yesterday, CEO Alan Joyce said engineers have discovered oil leaks in the turbine area of three engines on three different A380s.
"The oil leaks were beyond normal tolerances," Joyce told reporters. "So Rolls-Royce and our engineers have looked at what we have gathered as an accepted level and they have passed that threshold."
"All of these engines are new engines on a new aircraft type," he added. "The engines are not performing to the parameters that you would expect with this."
Because of that, he said, all of the airline's A380s will be grounded for at least an additional 72 hours.
"We are not going to take any risks whatsoever," Joyce said. "We want to make sure we have a 100-percent safe?operation."
All three affected engines have been removed from the planes for further testing, and will be replaced with spare engines the airline has on hand, Joyce said.
Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, the other airlines that fly A380s fitted with Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 engines, also briefly grounded their planes last week, but resumed services after completing safety checks.
The Qantas engineers are working with Rolls-Royce, who manufactured and maintains the engines, as well as the aircraft's constructor Airbus.
Shares in Rolls-Royce Group PLC slumped almost 4 percent to US$9.18 yesterday morning on the London Stock Exchange. They lost more than 5 percent last week after Thursday's in-flight incident.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading an international investigation into the blowout on the A380, appealed for help from residents of Indonesia's Batam island to find a missing piece of a turbine disc which may have landed there.
The island was scattered with debris last Thursday when one of the A380's four engines failed minutes into a flight to Sydney, with 466 people aboard. The engine was shut down and the plane returned to °?Singapore and safely made an emergency landing.
Qantas passengers stranded by the grounding of the A380s are expected to be flown to their destinations within 24 hours, Joyce said. The airline is adding flights from London and Los Angeles to help clear the backlog.
Joyce would not specify how much the airline has lost since the engine explosion, nor would he comment on whether Qantas plans to seek compensation from Rolls-Royce.
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