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Rolls Outlines Trent 900 Modification Plan By Max Kingsley-Jones kingsley.jones@aviationweek.com LONDON Rolls-Royce says that last week’s uncontained failure of a Trent 900 on a Qantas Airbus A380 was caused by the malfunction of “a specific component” in the turbine area, which will be addressed by a modification programme across the fleet. Meanwhile Airbus boss Tom Enders has warned that the problem may impact A380 deliveries this year and next. Rolls says that the investigation and Trent 900 engine inspections launched in the wake of the QF32 incident on Nov. 4 has led it to draw two key conclusions. It confirms...

INVESTIGATORS probing the A380 engine saga found an oil fire may have led to the mid-air engine explosion last week that seriously damaged a Qantas jet, the Herald Sun reported today. Details of what is believed to have occurred were revealed in an emergency directive by the European Aviation Safety Authority to all airlines which bought super jumbos fitted with the now suspect Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine. Singapore Airlines and German carrier Lufthansa are the only other airlines flying Rolls-Royce powered superjumbos. In today's directive, the European safety regulator said that a preliminary study indicated an oil fire may have...

Australia's Qantas Airways has grounded its A380 fleet for at least another three days as it investigates oil leaks as a possible cause of the explosion which tore apart one of the super jumbo's engines last week. Qantas shares fell as its reputation as one of the world's safest airlines came under the spotlight and investors started counting the financial cost of grounding aircraft and compensating passengers.

The airline says the Airbus A380 aircraft, with 433 passengers and 26 crew aboard, made an emergency landing and all on board are safe and well. -- snip -- Christopher Lee told ABC Radio's PM program that there was an explosion about 15 minutes after take-off. "After leaving Singapore there was an explosion, there was a loud bang followed by another one, and then a rattling of the cabin," he said. "Some of the passengers then alerted cabin staff to the fact that there was an explosion, there was smoke or something to that effect. "At that [point] we were...

Qantas grounded its Airbus A380 fleet after one of the superjumbo jets blew out an engine Thursday, shooting flames and raining large metal chunks before making a safe emergency landing in Singapore with 459 people aboard.

Just coming in...plane crash in Indonesia...developing...

Only a headline so far.

Terrified passengers on a London-bound flight froze in their seats as a crazed man ran through the aisle of the Qantas jet screaming: 'You will all die!' Praying and yelling in a foreign language, the man threatened to kill himself and the passengers on the fully-laden jet several hours after it took off from Melbourne to fly to London via Hong Kong. Flight attendants managed to jump on the man and restrain him as he threatened to open an emergency exit door, shouting: 'It is God's will'. Passengers told of the flight of terror when they made calls to friends...

A jumbo jet pilot has told how he repeatedly had overwhelming urges to crash the planes he was flying. Bryan Griffin said that once he even had to 'immobilise' his arm to prevent him trying to down a Qantas passenger jet. His hand had 'involuntarily moved towards the start levers' on the journey to Singapore. The compulsion to cut out the engines was so strong, he had to leave the flight deck and did not return until he had calmed down. The pilot revealed during a compensation hearing how he was also afflicted by urges to scream and cry, ignored...

A QANTAS plane was just 400 feet off the runway at Melbourne Airport when the pilot was forced to abort a landing this morning, because of congestion. The 747 jumbo from Los Angeles was carrying 300 passengers when it had to pull out of the landing at the last minute. The pilot was forced to circle the airport until the runway was cleared.

A QANTAS plane landed safely in Perth this morning after calling for assistance when a pilot became incapacitated. The airline confirmed that flight QF593 from Adelaide had issued a “pan" alert and asked to be met by an ambulance after one of the pilots suffered a health issue, The Australian reports. The Qantas 737-800 from Adelaide carrying 110 passengers left Adelaide about 6.50am (local time) and touched down in Perth at 7.30am. An emergency was declared by the co-pilot and air traffic control vectored the aircraft onto the longest runway 21/03, thewest.com.au reports. After touch down the aircraft came to...

Boeing's largest airline customer for the 787 said it is canceling orders for 15 Dreamliners and deferring another 15 deliveries by four years. Qantas Group, the parent of Qantas and discount carrier Jetstar, said Friday in Australia that the changes were driven by the economic climate, not this week's announcement of a design problem that will add weeks or months to the much-delayed plane's first flight. Qantas has 50 remaining Dreamliners on order, comprising 35 787-9s and 15 787-8s. "The latest delay is disappointing, but we do not expect it to impact the Qantas Group given these changes to our...

Passengers were thrown around the cabin of a Qantas flight after severe turbulence forced the plane to plummet mid-air, injuring seven. QF68 was flying over Borneo in Malaysia, about four hours after leaving Hong Kong, when it "encountered severe turbulence", Qantas said in a statement. The Airbus A330 touched down at Perth International Airport this morning, and shaken passengers disembarked from it. Six passengers and one crew member were injured and were treated by paramedics once the plane arrived. One man suffered a cut to his head during the incident, which is understood to have lasted between 10 to 20...

THE reason why an oxygen cylinder came to blow a hole in a Qantas jet carrying 365 passengers and crew to Melbourne is still unknown. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the cylinder, which penetrated the cabin and skin of the aircraft, causing a loss of cabin pressure, had never been found, so the exact reason for the malfunction could not be determined. There was no trace of any explosive residue that would point to a terrorist attack. The ATSB and aircraft manufacturer Boeing examined a number of cylinders from the same production batch. "To date, the investigation has not...

LOS ANGELES — Every time Qantas lands one of its giant Airbus A380s at Los Angeles International Airport, parts of the nation's fourth-busiest airport come to a halt. Service roads, taxiways and runways must be closed to airfield trucks, cars and other commercial aircraft as the world's largest passenger plane — with wings almost as long as a football field — arrives, departs and taxis with an official escort of operations vehicles. The plane is so immense that air traffic controllers give it priority so it doesn't have to wait for takeoff at the end of the southern runways in...

A MALFUNCTION has forced a Qantas jet to return to Perth, prompting concerns for the second time in three months that interference from a defence station in northwestern Australia may be to blame for a mid-air drama on the national carrier. Qantas flight 71 was on route to Singapore with 277 passengers about 8.30am last Saturday when it had to return to Perth after the jet's autopilot disconnected because of a problem with a unit that supplies key information to flight control computers. The Airbus A330-300 was 45 minutes into the journey and about 380 nautical miles south of the...

The abrupt dive of a Qantas A330-300 last week that injured scores of passengers wasn't caused by a passenger's electronic device, but by an internal breakdown in the Airbus's flight-control computer system, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said on Tuesday.

A passenger's laptop computer is being considered as a possible cause of the Qantas incident off Western Australia on Tuesday. The Airbus A330-300 was flying from Singapore to Perth when it suddenly plunged thousands of feet, leaving more than 50 people injured. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at an air force base near Exmouth in WA. A computer malfunction involving the auto-pilot system is being blamed for the incident. 'There certainly was a period of time where the aircraft performed on its own accord as it pitched over nose forward,' said Julian Walsh from the Transport...

A Qantas Boeing 747 was forced to make an emergency landing at Manila Airport on Friday after a midair incident. CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau would be focusing on whether an onboard oxygen tank had exploded, ripping a hole in the plane's fuselage. -snip- He confirmed an oxygen cylinder was missing from the plane and this would be a key focus of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's(ATSB) investigation into what happened.

SYDNEY (AFP) — Air safety investigators said Sunday that an exploding oxygen cylinder may have been to blame for tearing a huge hole in an Australian Qantas jumbo jet in mid-air, nearly causing a disaster. Officials said an oxygen back-up cylinder is missing from the aircraft, and ordered the airline to inspect all such bottles on its fleet of Boeing 747s. The Qantas Boeing 747 was flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne on Friday when an explosive bang led to a sudden loss of air pressure in the cabin. The plane, which had originated in London and was carrying 365...