Discovery of oil leaks keeps Qantas A380s grounded

Date added: 8 November, 2010

8.11.2010 (The Engineer)

Qantas is keeping its Airbus A380 aircraft grounded after investigations into
a mid-air engine failure found oil leaks in three crafts’ turbines.

Rolls-Royce share prices have fallen around 10 per cent since one of the company’s
Trent 900 engines exploded mid-flight last Thursday, forcing the Qantas aircraft
carrying it to make an emergency landing in Singapore.

‘Oil leaks have been discovered in the turbine area of three engines,’ Alan Joyce,
Qantas chief executive, told a news conference in Sydney

‘The focus of our investigation has narrowed to the possibility of an oil leakage
of the relevant turbine area, however, investigations on other areas of the engine
are continuing in order to rule out other potential issues.’

The airline expects its six A380s to be out of operation for at least the next
72 hours as it works with Rolls-Royce and Airbus engineers to carry out inspections
in Sydney and Los Angeles.

A second Qantas aircraft – a Boeing 747 using a different type of Rolls-Royce
engine – was also forced to return to Singapore last Friday after reporting an
engine problem.

Shortly after the A380 incident last week, it emerged that Rolls-Royce was warned
several months previously by European officials that there were potential safety
problems with the Trent 900 engines.

An airworthiness directive from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) reported
wear on the splines of the engine’s intermediate pressure (IP) turbine that could
lead to ‘in-flight shut down, oil migration and oil fire’.

A statement issued by Rolls-Royce today said it was clear that the A380 incident
was specific to the Trent 900 engine and unrelated to another event involving
a Trent 1000 that occurred in August 2010 on a test-bed in Derby.

’As a result, a series of checks and inspections has been agreed with Airbus,
with operators of the Trent 900-powered A380 and with the airworthiness authorities.
These are being progressively completed, which is allowing a resumption of operation
of aircraft in full compliance with all safety standards. We are working in close
cooperation with Airbus, our customers and the authorities, and, as always, safety
remains our highest priority…

’The Trent 900 incident is the first of its kind to occur on a large civil Rolls-Royce
engine since 1994. Since then, Rolls-Royce has accumulated 142 million hours of
flight on Trent and RB211 engines.’

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/news/discovery-of-oil-leaks-keeps-qantas-a380s-grounded/1005928.article

see also

ABTN     8.11.2010

Earlier today the airline’s chief executive told a press conference in Australia
that oil was found to have leaked in some of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines.

Alan Joyce said engineers found oil in three engines, and admitted it was "unusual"
given the aircraft were only two years old.

He said the cause was still unknown, but that the company would take "as long
as required" to indentify the problem.

"We will take as long as it needs to in order that we are absolutely comfortable
the aircraft is safe to fly,” he said.

According to reports in the business press, Rolls Royce has lost up to a billion
pounds off of its market value since a Qantas aircraft was forced to make an emergency
landing in Singapore last week.

http://www.abtn.co.uk/news/0814899-qantas-a380s-remain-grounded

It appears that the engine problems to the two planes are unlikely to be related
to the eruption of Mount Merapi, a thousand or more miles away.

Did Merapi volcano ash damage the Qantas A380 engine?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20101104/wl_csm/341320

and

Did Merapi volcano ash damage the Qantas A380 engine? 

http://thailandaviation.blogspot.com/2010/11/did-merapi-volcano-ash-damage-qantas.html

Posted: Monday, November 8th, 2010. Filed in General News.