Us frequent flyers and A380's ...

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Smiles
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Us frequent flyers and A380's ...

Post by Smiles »

Take a look at this mess of an engine. Apparently happened over the Atlantic at 35000 ft.
If I recall a few years ago pretty much the same happened to a Qantas A380 which had to land at Singapore.
There'll be some very long nights at the Airbus 'disaster investigation' offices.
Kudos to pilots on this one.

In a strange way, a certain kudo might be given to Airbus ... one can hardly believe an airliner receiving such damage, at that height, avoided going straight down.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/newf ... -1.4315132
Cheers ... ( and just one more reason why I love living in Thailand )

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fountainhall

Re: Us frequent flyers and A380's ...

Post by fountainhall »

I cannot access that site (I'm in Iran where many sites are blocked including all with 'gay' in the title - but surprisingly not this one!) so I cannot see the accident you refer to (was an A380 involved?)

The Qantas A380 engine blowout Smiles refers to was recently featured in one of the Airplane Disaster TV series. That aircraft had just taken off from Singapore to London. It was due to a small oil leak which resulted in a part of the engine overrotating at massive speed and basically causing a near catastrophic failure. Had it not been for the skills of the 2 sets of pilots, it would undoubtedly have crashed into the ocean but they brought it it down successfully back at Singapore. It was not, as some sites suggest, a turbine blade failure.

The A380 is my favourite aircraft. An engine failure is not uncommon but one seriously damaging the fuselage as in the Qantas accident is. Kudos therefore definitely to the flight crews and to the sturdiness of the aircraft - and none to the engine makers Rolls Royce! But it won't stop me flying the aircraft in future.

PS: I have now seen photos of that Air France A380. Curious as to how it was the front of the engine cowling that appears to have been involved this time. But not a Rolls Royce engine - this was made by GE and Pratt and Whitney. Horrific for those on Board, especially if sitting by windows on that side of the aircraft.
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Re: Us frequent flyers and A380's ...

Post by Smiles »

Here's what a passenger was sitting beside. Somewhat disconcerting.
This happened yesterday. The plane landed successfully in Newfoundland, Canada. The A380 can certainly fly with 3 engines, but the debris coming crashing out of that broken engine at huge speeds could easily of severed more than it did ... and the shrapnel could have blasted its way through the
passenger fuselarge.

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View from landing:

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fountainhall

Re: Us frequent flyers and A380's ...

Post by fountainhall »

Just read this on the professional pilots rumour site - pprune.org
If this is a shaft failure, this could be pretty bad news for GP7000 operators. GE did have issues early on with hydrogen embrittlement of shafts on their 787 engine; it was so bad that brand new engines were falling to pieces on their first run (the problem got sorted pretty quickly though). Anyway, if it is this one wonders what that does to the flight worthiness of the GP7000 fleet. AFAIK it's pretty difficult to inspect for embrittlement; you simply have to wait until it falls to pieces. We could be looking at a worldwide grounding for quite a while...
This of course refers to the GE/Pratt and Whitney engine equipped fleets only. Very early days yet, though.
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Re: Us frequent flyers and A380's ...

Post by Gaybutton »

fountainhall wrote:GE/Pratt and Whitney engine
Looks like the Pratt engine took a prat fall . . .
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Re: Us frequent flyers and A380's ...

Post by a447 »

An engine failure is not the end of the world. Aviation law requires an aircraft to be able to continue on unaffected by the loss of one engine.

The biggest worry is if the engine disintegrates and parts fly off and strike other parts of the aircraft (E.g. blade fragment throw).
deanagam

Re: Us frequent flyers and A380's ...

Post by deanagam »

What is happening to quality control in the first world?
fountainhall

Re: Us frequent flyers and A380's ...

Post by fountainhall »

a447 wrote:The biggest worry is if the engine disintegrates and parts fly off and strike other parts of the aircraft (E.g. blade fragment throw).
That's what happened in the Qantas accident. It was one of the inboard engines which disintegrated puncturing the wing and the fuselage and disabling vital systems including some hydraulics and fuel lines. After the pilots brought the aircraft to a standstill in Singapore, passengers, as in the Air France incident, had to remain on board for well over two hours because of the fuel leaking on to the runway. One spark could have resulted in a massive conflagration. But not much joy for passengers and crew knowing they were effectively sitting inside a bomb!

The Air France engine appears to have been the outboard No. 1 engine.
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