News is emerging from Rolls Royce over the QF32 incident with their inital investigations of the QF32 uncontained engine incident.
Rolls Royce has concluded that that a component failure in the turbine section of an engine fitted to a Qantas A380, the ultimately led to the oil fire which destroyed the powerplant in-flight. This was located in a specific component” in the turbine area.
Rolls Royce has not released much more detail, but says this issue applies to the Trent 900 engines fitted on 20 Airbus A380 aircraft only.
They also say:
“Our process of inspection will continue and will be supplemented by the replacement of the relevant module according to an agreed programme,” says Rolls-Royce.
“These measures, undertaken in collaboration with Airbus, our Trent 900 customers and the regulators have regrettably led to some reduction in aircraft availability.
The three operators of Airbus A380’s who use Trent 900 engines have undertaken engine changes. Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa continue to fly them – the Qantas fleet remains grounded.
However, with all these engine swaps going on, if your on an A380 and it’s pulled, don’t expect to be back in the air for a while as the spare engines are now becoming a scare resource, with all three carriers concerned over the amount of spare left.
Expect more questions to be asked of Rolls Royce…
