Qantas A380 in Mid-Air Engine Mishap Lands in Dubai
Embattled Australian carrier Qantas on Friday diverted one of its A380s to Dubai because of engine problems; a year to the day after a turbine blast in another of its superjumbos rocked the airline.
QF31 was four hours into the flight from Singapore to London, carrying 258 passengers and 25 crew, when the pilot decided that the oil pressure in one engine made it "absolutely important" to change course, a spokeswoman said.
On November 4, 2010, flight QF32, also out of Singapore, experienced an engine blast en route to Sydney. That flight landed safely despite damage to the plane, but the incident prompted Qantas to ground all its A380s.
Qantas said there were no links between the two incidents.
"This is a coincidence," spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said of the timing.
"It is an issue which has been detected in engine number four and it involves the pressure defect of the oil in this particular engine," she told reporters.
"It was shut down in line with procedures and the captain diverted the aircraft and safely arrived in Dubai around two-and-a-half hours later."
The aircraft was being assessed by engineers in Dubai.
"It will be a priority of ours to ensure that we work out exactly what the particular problem is in this engine," Wirth added.
Qantas, which on Saturday shut down its entire fleet over an escalating industrial dispute with unions, subjected its Airbus A380 planes to intensive safety checks after the 2010 mid-air explosion.
The blast sent shards of metal raining down on an Indonesian island and punched a hole in the wing of the aircraft. No-one was injured, but the emergency landing in a trail of smoke dented Qantas's reputation for safety.
Subsequent investigations pinpointed a manufacturing defect which caused fatigue cracking in an oil pipe, resulting in a fire and potentially catastrophic engine failure.
The incident prompted the replacement of dozens of turbines by airlines around the world.
Qantas now has 10 of the superjumbos in its fleet. The airline reached a Aus$95 million (U.S.$104 million) settlement with engine maker Rolls-Royce in June 2011 over the incident.
Source: Agence France Presse
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