Secret Squirrel has pondered the recent Qantas engine failure and is considering that airline safety is a myth? Well, perhaps, due to various reasons and factors, but certainly not with respect to the airline Qantas.Why? What occurred?A Rolls Royce Trent jet engine, disintegrated in mid flight, piercing severely the wing of the aircraft. The aircraft did not crash, did not turn in to a flaming Concorde,by the Good Grace of God Himself,without a doubt.Airbus SAS and Rolls-Royce Group have begun investigating why an engine on a Qantas Airways Ltd. A380 superjumbo exploded in midflight, forcing an emergency landing in the worst incident since the aircraft began service in 2007.Royce-Royce, the world’s second-biggest maker of jet engines, urged airlines that operate its Trent 900 turbines to conduct precautionary checks.
Well this is Qantas' SECOND Rolls Royce Airbus A380 uncontained engine failure in three months.This time the disintegrating Rolls Royce engine pierced the wing.The passengers were fortunate et all that they didn't go the way of the flaming Concorde.The second engine on the side, failed to switch off,on landing.An interesting Rolls Royce safety feature?Not really, but the debris of the disintegrating engine so wrecked things as to disable the engine control mechanism,firefighters had not only the leaking fuel to contend with,(from engines, and it appears from the damage from leaking fuel tanks that,thank the Good Lord, did not ignite and explode)but this is yet something Airbus itself, must now look in to,and cannot be ignored,requiring,most definately and assuredly in the continuing Airbus manufacture.
Recall also pitot tube problems catastrophically suffered by the Brazillian Airbus aircraft which crashed, and massively other Airbuses, of other types, which necessitated major changes to the Airbus pitot tube system. Qantas GROUNDS all their Airbuses,other airlines do not..............why? Does Qantas maintenance those engines?No,not by Qantas, it's done by Rolls Royce.........so..........other airlines STILL not grounding theirs, why? There is fault here, grave fault, but its at the feet of Rolls Royce, and fortunately,only by the Grace of God, there are no smoking carbonized carcasses of the passengers,the husbands,the wives, the children in sum toto,at their feet also.
Presently Qantas has a safety record amongst all the other airlines that is highly enviable.In it's entire history Qantas has a total passenger loss (death) of 66, the last being 1951............an enviable record of airline operational passenger safety..........and none of the crashes were ,nor have been as yet,of the jet variety.But face it, it was all nearly a nasty accident,wasn't it.BUT not a thing that can be ignored, and by Qantas certainly isn't being ignored.ENGINEERS say an intermediate pressure turbine disc in the No 2 engine of QF32 failed, triggering the explosion that ripped through the engine casing of the A380.The explosion damaged the wing and left a trail of wreckage across the Indonesian island of Batam.But they are examining certain scenarios that could have caused the problem. These include an oil fire in the bearing compartment, blocked cooling tubes or a bearing failure.A less likely cause was a problem with a rectangular part at the root of the turbine blades known as the intermediate pressure (IP) turbine blade platform. An oil fire or bearing failure could cause the intermediate turbine shaft to sever, causing the IP turbine to rotate at twice the normal speed and, potentially, the disc to disintegrate.
The explosion on QF32 was the third technical problem recorded with a Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine and an A380 jet.Two months ago, a Lufthansa superjumbo shut down one of its Trent 900 engines before landing at Frankfurt because of changes in oil pressure.A Singapore Airlines A380 turned back after leaving Paris in September last year because of a Trent 900 engine malfunction.The explosion on Thursday was powerful enough to overwhelm devices ringing the engine aimed at stopping or limiting rare uncontained failures, believed to account for just a few per cent of engine failures.
Normally these devices, made from kevlar and composites, help keep broken parts within the engine or force them to be expelled through the tail pipe,they didn't,they couldn't.The Trent 900 has been the subject of two European airworthiness directives of excessive wear and engineers will see whether those problems have occurred again.Investigators do not yet know why the disc failed, as the superjumbo carrying 440 passengers and 26 crew climbed after leaving Changi Airport in Singapore on Thursday.
The Daily Finance is asking "Should Qantas Replace It's Airbus A380's With Boeing 747's" at
http://www.singaporenewsonline.com/FullNewsPage.php?Link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyfinance.com%2Fstory%2Fcompany-news%2Fqantas-replace-airbus-380-boeing-747-engine-explosion%2F19703741%2F
I'm suggesting if they wish to continue Airbus A380 use, they should re-engine, with different models of the Trent engine. I should add a recent Trent 1000,a model upgrade,to power a coming Boeing B787 American aircraft,has on test bed,already suffered from catastrophic,uncontained failure.They're making changes to that engine model as I write,and good luck to you too) in the very least,at the very best, re--engine with General Electric proven reliability engines.The airline has stated it is material failure,of which there are certain types, so -called incidental casting defects which can periodically occur,material failure due stresses due to improper material selection in design manufacture, and/or there is the actual design impropriety,which causes everything.
Financially there there is unlikely to be any longer-term reputational damage,though in the short term Qantas's shares ended down 1% at Aus$2,86, underperforming the broader market which advanced 1,2% to a six-month high, as investors had tended to "move on" from previous safety incidents, which have never resulted in a fatal crash for Qantas.In fact the record is utterly spotless, with a slight blemish where a 747 overshot the runway,Qantas' record in the jet era was spotless until a Qantas Boeing 747-400 , carrying 407 passengers and crew, over-ran the runway by 220 metres, ending up in a golf course, while landing in a rainstorm at Bangkok on 23 September 1999, there were no fatalities. At least not yet,not for the longest of times, and again not in it's 90 year on of jet engines times, but we see the care Qantas takes, the very necessary care,far greater care than the great majority of airlines.
As to the grounding of Qantas' 6 present Airbus A380's, well one is reminded of the role Qantas played in “Rainman,” the 1988 film about an autistic man reuniting with his brother on a cross country trip.In this pivotal scene in the airport, Dustin Hoffman’s title character refuses to fly. He spews a stream of airline crash statistics to Tom Cruise’s character, and then lauds the Australian airline’s safety record.
“Qantas. Qantas never crashes,” Hoffman says.
And so still so very true,but only by the Grace of God, and the care of Qantas.It may eventually,but not yet,occur, but not if Qantas can at all help it.But let me tell you if and when these crashes do occur, it is over your dead bodies.
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