Qantas A380 and 747-400 emergency landings at Changi

[Nick C]

Oh dear. How many 744's have SQ got in the desert ?.

none

current fleet of 10 Airbus A380-800 aircraft.

[zilchster]

It's definitely an uncontained engine failure. Saw pics on a website where internal parts of the engine( compressor or turbine disc hub) was found in a house ! It's lucky none of this parts hit anyone as it will be sure (ugly) death being hit by any of these. Most engines only have the fan and first stage compressor sections protected with a kevlar exterior around the casings in case of a bird strike. Not the whole engine.
Foresee an AD or a SI coming up on RR Trent 900 engines and possible maintenance actions. Most likely culprit at this point in time would be fatigue cracks. Seems eerily reminiscent of an UA DC 10 incident in the US some years back.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/gallery-e...864448?page=19

It's really lucky none of this parts pierced the fuel tank as it would have been a potential catastrophe. And as SQDazz mentioned, QF A380s are maintained in house and to LH as well, if I'm not mistaken. So, out goes the outsourcing of the blame as well.

Looking at the damage done to the wing, it is lucky that the debris didn't pierce the fuel tank or the fuselage or anything like that. If that happens, I think that would be no survivors.

Meanwhile QF has said it will suspend its A380 flights. The SIN-LHR QF 0031 has been cancelled for today, not sure if other A380 flights will be affected.

Let's hope the root cause of the problem will be discovered, problem fixed, and air travel made safer after this incident.

But I wonder how SQ will cope if its 380 fleet had to be grounded ...

[singaporu_kooku]

Well.. SQ apparently will delay its A380 flights, whatever that means...

http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/Util...up.jsp?msgId=1

[globetrekker84]

Looks to me as if RR is in trouble. Just my opinion. Glad that nobody was hurt

RR is getting into more trouble since they are still trying to figure out what happened to the other uncontained engine failure for the 787.

[Russ]

I have taken 3 QF A380 flights in the last 2 years. Last year I flew VH-OQA twice and VH-OQC once. The aircraft that suffered the engine failure is VH-OQA....

[jhm]

It's really lucky none of this parts pierced the fuel tank as it would have been a potential catastrophe.

Speculation here:

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/4...ml#post6037776

that the hole in the wing meant that one of the engines could not be shutdown (hence why the fire crews were trying to drown the engine with water).

[MAN Flyer]

Been trying to work out where at Changi the bird is on that shot.

[jhm]

Been trying to work out where at Changi the bird is on that shot.

Somewhere on runway 2 - the following from Changi apparently:

An A380 Qantas flight, QF 32, bound for Sydney, Australia, departed Singapore Changi Airport at 0956 hours today. For technical reasons, the aircraft turned back to Changi and landed safely at 1146 hours.

Changi Airport Group's Airport Emergency Service (AES) responded with six fire vehicles, in accordance with standard operating procedure for such incidents. In response to the pilot's request, checks were conducted on the aircraft by AES. Once the checks were completed, passengers and crew began disembarking from the aircraft at Runway 2. Buses were arranged to ferry them to the airport terminal. Disembarkation of all 469 passengers and crew on board was completed by 1340 hours.

Runway 2, which has remained closed since the landing, will reopen later today. Flights have continued to take off and land at Runway 1 and operations at Changi have, otherwise, not been affected.

[FN-GM]

This might sound a stupid question but why are the landing gear doors still open?

[globetrekker84]

This might sound a stupid question but why are the landing gear doors still open?

Definitely not a stupid question. It's possible that when the engine failed, it might have set the plane in an "emergency mode", where the hydraulics would only be used on flight critical components (such as the surfaces). The landing gear doors are considered non-flight critical.

zvezda, correct me if I'm wrong.

[Nick C]

Definitely not a stupid question. It's possible that when the engine failed, it might have set the plane in an "emergency mode", where the hydraulics would only be used on flight critical components (such as the surfaces). The landing gear doors are considered non-flight critical.

more like hydraulic failure leading to a gravity drop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJN8Paj8I4g

what's that vapour? (clearly it's a puncture in the fuel tank)

not all the spoilers deployed. quite a clear indication of hydraulic lines being severed.

[FN-GM]

Could the vapour from the fuel dump?

[Nick C]

Could the vapour from the fuel dump?

nope. the black tube isn't spewing stuff out in the video (though the crew had to circle to dump fuel prior to landing)

found this picture to show you the difference


credits to the photographer

[globetrekker84]

more like hydraulic failure leading to a gravity drop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJN8Paj8I4g

what's that vapour? (clearly it's a puncture in the fuel tank)

not all the spoilers deployed. quite a clear indication of hydraulic lines being severed.

Oh yeah. That could be it too.

[dengilo]

Is it just me or do most of these incidents that happen to Qantas involve flights from SIN ? :S

Is that true?How much fuel need to dump for the plane to land safely?How fast can it be done and at what rate?