Posted on 11/26/2010 8:24:34 PM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour
A "leaked" and unconfirmed PDF document first published by Crikey.com purports to show pictures of the damage done to a Qantas A380 on November 4 when it suffered an un-contained engine failure and shed parts over Indonesia. Photos in the document show a failure that sent debris toward the fuselage, gashes in a wing, serious damage to a flight control drive motor, severed wiring, damage to a forward spar and a large fuel pipe that's torn open. (Click through for images.) The document says the forward spar was "penetrated and is damaged extensively." The photos have not been officially confirmed by Airbus or Qantas. Separately, Richard Woodward, vice-president of the Australian and International Pilots Association said of the damage, "the amount of failures is unprecedented." Qantas grounded its six aircraft fleet of Airbus A380's following the accident but announced Tuesday that it is ready to resume some A380 operations after "extensive checks with Airbus and Rolls-Royce." The airline is not ready to restart its longest A380 flights and Rolls-Royce is still busy dealing with complications the events have imposed on its supply chain.
(Excerpt) Read more at avweb.com ...
That it survived to land without any injuries says enough about the robustness of the aircraft.
Rolls Royce needs to do some work.
“If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going”
I hear that!
That’s why after many A-320 flights i’ve turned to Southwest Airlines pretty much exclusivly.
I’ve flown Airbus planes and they’ve been safe and comfortable. As for the A-380, that behemoth is flown on very long distance routes. If you need to fly for more than 10 hours, the last thing you want is to fly in a cramped plane.
See I told ya' captain, were flying tommrow and there ain't gonna be no engine changes. Those engines were designed by Americans in the 1960s. That means they use a lot of gas, make a lot of noise and are defiantly way over built."
Losing blades is not a big deal, nacelles are required to contain them, it's part of the certification process.
This was a burst turbine DISC, much heavier, no way to contain it. Disc failure is truly a catastrophic failure.
You ARE kidding, right?
This was a Rolls Royce engine failure, a new Trent 900. The Trent family has a known problem with oiling.
A few weeks ago, a BOEING 787 made an emergency landing on a test flight after a Trent failure.
So you might want to stay off Boeings too.
Rolls Royce did not design the redundant electrical control systems in the wing that failed.
Rolls Royce did not design the hydraulic lines in the wing that failed.
Rolls Royce did not design the brake system which failed.
Rolls Royce did not design the fuel pump system in the wings which failed.
Etc, etc, etc...
The A380 is a design failure from the stand point of emergency operations and these passengers are very lucky to have survived.
Had it not been for an extra long 4,000 meter runway they would have crashed on landing.
The other engine for the A380 is the Alliance GP7200 built by an alliance of GE and PW. GE builds the core, and PW builds the fans.
But they did produce the Veg-o-matic that sliced and diced these systems, which is why they 'failed.'
Quantas not Airbus or Rolls Royce required higher safety margins for returning to the air.
“Qantas had imposed conditions and restrictions over and above what Rolls-Royce, Airbus and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority demanded for A380s resuming service.”
Rolls Royce is facing large claims.
“According to Qantas, Rolls Royce will have to replace forty of these defective reactors which power the world’s fleet of Airbus A380. For its part, Rolls Royce has assured its customers they have identified the problem and pledged to change a defective element of the turbine.
Nevertheless, this case looks expensive for Rolls Royce, because airlines could turn against the engine and require compensation. Industry analysts suggest the amount is already running into hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Airbus comes with two engine options: Rolls-Royce’s Trent 900 and an alternative engine dubbed “Engine Alliance” designed by General Electric Co. and Pratt & Whitney. Following the failure in Trent 900, many customers waiting on orders such as the UAE and China Southern Airlines Co. are considering switching to the alternative Engine Alliance instead.
Air France is already flying its A380s with alternative Engine Alliance engines and has had no reported issues so far.
True, but multiple design flaw designs in where to place critical hydraulic and electrical control lines where Airbus’s responsibility not Rolls Royce.
P.S. The faulty anti-lock brakes which failed almost leading to a crash on landing were also Airbus’s responsibility as well.
This was interesting...
“The aircraft stopped with just over 100 metres or runway left, brakes temps climbed to 900C and fuel pouring out of the ruptured tank. Unable to shutdown #1 engine (as previously mentioned) but elected not to evacuate as the fire services were attending in great numbers.”
And this:
“Historically, Rolls has had to combat oil system ‘hiding’ issues with the following:
RB211 / L1011;
Trent 500 / A340-500/600’s;
Trent 700 / A330;
Trent 900 / A380.
The Trent 900 series is not a mature design since it has had so many failures.
SQ has already suffered two IFSDs with the Trent 900 and 12 engines removed from the wing for premature strip downs due to anomolies.
This grounding of three airline’s A380s shows it is an systemic Trent 970/972 family issue and not a specific operator issue.
The lack of maturity of the Trent 900 series engine must be of great concern.
1. Qantas A388 near Singapore on Nov 4th 2010, uncontained engine failure
2. Lufthansa A388 near Frankfurt on Aug 6th 2010, engine shut down in flight
3. Singapore A388 near Krakow on Sep 27th 2009, engine shut down in flight
4. Singapore A388 near London on May 25th 2009, engine failure”
Stall, spin, crash, burn.
They are lucky they got it back to the a/p.
That's not reassuring.
It's impressive that the plane survived. I'd ride Airbus, but I'll take a pass on the Rolls Royce engines.
I am very, very happy they were able to get the plane down alright. With all that experience in the cockpit, I would say in this worst-case scenario it made all the difference in the world. Gotta be grateful to God all those guys were in the plane together to get it down okay.
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