Qantas Flight 32

Qantas Flight 32

VH-OQA, the aircraft involved in the accident (May 2009 photo, taking off from London Heathrow Airport)
Incident summary
Date 4 November 2010
Summary Uncontained engine failure, due to defective engine manufacturing
Site Batam Island, Indonesia
1°04′N 104°01′E / 1.067°N 104.017°E / 1.067; 104.017Coordinates: 1°04′N 104°01′E / 1.067°N 104.017°E / 1.067; 104.017
Passengers 440
Crew 29
Fatalities 0
Injuries (non-fatal) 0
Survivors 469 (all)
Aircraft type Airbus A380-842
Aircraft name Nancy Bird Walton
Operator Qantas
Registration VH-OQA
Flight origin London Heathrow Airport
Stopover Singapore Changi Airport
Destination Sydney Airport

Qantas Flight 32 was a Qantas scheduled passenger flight that suffered an uncontained engine failure on 4 November 2010 and made an emergency landing at Singapore Changi Airport. The failure was the first of its kind for the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft. It marked the first aviation occurrence involving an Airbus A380. On inspection it was found that a turbine disc in the aircraft's No. 2 Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine (on the port side nearest the fuselage) had disintegrated. In addition to destruction of the engine, this also caused damage to the nacelle, wing, fuel system, landing gear, flight controls, the controls for engine No. 1 and an undetected fire in the left inner wing fuel tank that eventually self-extinguished.[1] The failure was determined to have been caused by the breaking of a stub oil pipe which had been manufactured improperly.

The aircraft was registered in Australia as VH-OQA, and named Nancy Bird Walton, Qantas' first A380. The failure occurred over Batam Island, Indonesia, on Flight 32 from London Heathrow Airport to Sydney Airport, four minutes after taking off from Changi for the second leg of the flight. After holding to determine aircraft status, the aircraft returned to Changi nearly two hours after take-off. There were no injuries to the passengers, crew or people on the ground; debris from the accident fell onto Batam.[2]

At the time of the accident, 39 A380s were operating with five airlines — Air France, Emirates, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Qantas. The accident led to the temporary grounding of the rest of the five-plane Qantas A380 fleet. It also led to groundings, inspections and engine replacements on some other Rolls-Royce powered A380s in service with Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, but not in the A380 fleets of Air France or Emirates, which were powered by Engine Alliance engines.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was an Airbus A380-842,[3] registration number VH-OQA, serial number 014.[1][4] Having entered service on 18 September 2008, the aircraft was the first A380 delivered to Qantas and had four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines;[5] it was named Nancy Bird-Walton in honour of an Australian aviation pioneer.[6] After completing repairs in Singapore, estimated at A$139 million, the aircraft returned to Sydney, New South Wales on 22 April 2012.[6]

Incident

The incident, at 10:01 a.m. Singapore Standard Time (02:01 UTC), was caused by an uncontained failure of the port inboard (No. 2) engine, while en route over Batam Island, Indonesia.[1][7]

Shrapnel from the exploding engine punctured part of the wing and damaged the fuel system causing leaks and a fuel tank fire,[8][9] disabled one hydraulic system and the anti-lock braking system, caused No. 1 and No. 4 engines to go into a "degraded" mode,[10] damaged landing flaps and the controls for the outer left No. 1 engine.[11]

The crew, after finding the plane controllable, decided to fly a racetrack holding pattern close to Changi airport while assessing the status of the aircraft. It took 50 minutes to complete this initial assessment. The first officer and supervising check captain (SCC) then input the plane's status to the landing distance performance application (LDPA) for a landing 50 tonnes over maximum landing weight at Changi.[10] Based on these inputs the LDPA could not calculate a landing distance. After discussion the crew elected to remove inputs related to a wet runway, in the knowledge that the runway was dry. The LDPA then returned the information that the landing was feasible with 100 metres of runway remaining.[12] The flight then returned to Singapore Changi Airport, landing safely after the crew extended the landing gear by a gravity drop emergency extension system,[8][12] at 11:45 a.m. Singapore time.[13][14] As a result of the aircraft landing 35 knots faster than normal,[10] four tires were blown.[3][15]

Qantas A380 cockpit. During the emergency, pilots were alerted by 54 error messages generated by aircraft systems.

Upon landing, the crew were unable to shut down the No. 1 engine, which had to be doused by emergency crews for three hours after landing until flameout was achieved.[12][16] The pilots considered whether to evacuate the plane immediately after landing as fuel was leaking from the left wing onto the brakes, which were extremely hot from maximum braking. The SCC pilot, David Evans, noted in an interview, "We’ve got a situation where there is fuel, hot brakes and an engine that we can’t shut down. And really the safest place was on board the aircraft until such time as things changed. So we had the cabin crew with an alert phase the whole time through ready to evacuate, open doors, inflate slides at any moment. As time went by, that danger abated and, thankfully, we were lucky enough to get everybody off very calmly and very methodically through one set of stairs."[10] The plane was on battery power and had to contend with only one VHF radio to coordinate emergency procedure with the local fire crew.[17]

There were no injuries reported among the 440 passengers and 29 crew on board the plane.[18] Debris also fell on a school and houses, causing structural damage,[19] and on a car.[20]

Pilot and crew

The pilot In command of the aircraft, Captain Richard Champion de Crespigny, has been credited in the media as "having guided a heavily damaged double-decker jet to the safety of Singapore Airport and averting what could have been a catastrophe".[21] At the time of the incident he had 35 years of flying experience and was the first Qantas "line" pilot to fly the Airbus A380 as the captain.[22] He was also commended for debriefing the passengers in the passenger terminal after the flight, disclosing details of the flight and offering care for his passengers.[23] In 2016 Champion de Crespigny was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the aviation industry both nationally and internationally, particularly to flight safety, and to the community.[24]

In 2010 Richard Woodward, a vice president of the Australian and International Pilots Association reported that there were five pilots on the cockpit of this flight. In addition to the normal crew of captain, first and second officer, there were two additional check captains: the captain who was being trained as a check captain (CC) and the supervising check captain, who was training the CC.[12] Captain de Crespigny concentrated on flying and managing the aircraft and monitoring the (100 ECAM) checklists being sifted through by the first officer. The supernumerary pilots monitored all actions and assisted where necessary.[25]

Cause

Engine nacelle of Qantas A380 open for inspection, showing Rolls-Royce Trent 900 components

The investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) indicated that "fatigue cracking" in a stub pipe within the engine resulted in oil leakage followed by an oil fire in the engine.[26] The fire led to the release of the Intermediate Pressure Turbine (IPT) disc. It also said the issue is specific to the Trent 900.[27]

Rolls-Royce determined that the direct cause of the oil fire and resulting engine failure was a misaligned counter bore within a stub oil pipe leading to a fatigue fracture.[28] The ATSB's preliminary investigation report confirmed Rolls-Royce's findings.[12]

Airbus determined that the IPT disc released three different high energy fragments, resulting in structural and systems damage. It also concluded that segregated wiring routes were cut by two out of the three individual pieces of disc debris and as a result, engine No. 1 could not be shut down after landing.[29]

On 10 November 2010, the European Aviation Safety Agency issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive, ordering airlines using the Trent 900 engine to conduct frequent and stringent tests, including extended ground idle runs, Low Pressure Turbine (LPT) stage one blade and case drain inspections and High Pressure/Intermediate Pressure (HP/IP) structure air buffer cavity and oil service tube inspections.[30] However, on 22 November, the EASA eased its inspection guidelines, citing progress in the investigation. It dropped requirements for extended ground idle runs and requirements for repetitive inspections of the LPT stage one blades and case drain.[31] On 2 December 2010, the ATSB ordered a one-off inspection of the "relevant" Trent 900 engines within two flight cycles.[26]

On 3 December 2010, the ATSB issued a preliminary report which contained a key finding of a manufacturing flaw: An area of fatigue cracking was found within a stub pipe that feeds oil to the engine HP/IP bearing structure.[12] Bearing lubricating oil leaked from the crack, causing the subsequent engine fire and failure of the IPT disc. The fatigue fracture was a result of the misalignment of the stub pipe during the counter-boring process. That inaccurate alignment resulted in one side of the same stub pipe becoming too thin to resist fatigue fracturing.[12][32] This "could lead to an elevated risk of fatigue crack initiation and growth, oil leakage and potential catastrophic engine failure from a resulting oil fire," according to the agency.[32]

The findings were determined to be a "critical safety issue," and the ATSB recommended immediate inspections of in-service Trent 900 engines.[32] On 8 December the ATSB reported that 45 Trent 900 engines had been inspected, and 3 of these engines had failed inspection and had been removed from service.[33] On 18 May 2011, the ATSB released an interim factual report[34] which states that 53 Trent 900 engines were removed from service — 11 due to out-of-tolerance oil-feed stub pipes and 42 due to lack of measurement records relating to the oil-feed stub pipe.

Reaction

Stock markets

Immediately after the accident, shares in the engine's manufacturer, Rolls-Royce Holdings, fell 5.5% to 618.5 pence on the London Stock Exchange, their sharpest fall in 18 months.[35] This was the lowest price since mid September 2010. The fall in the share price was directly attributed to this accident.[35] Shares in the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), which owns Airbus, also fell.[36]

By mid-morning on 8 November 2010, Rolls-Royce shares had fallen by more than 10% since the incident on the previous Thursday.[37]

Grounding of aircraft and replacement of engines

Both Qantas[14][38] and SIA,[39] which uses the same Rolls-Royce engine in its A380 aircraft, temporarily grounded their A380 fleets after the accident and performed further inspections. Singapore Airlines resumed operations the following day.[39]

Investigation of all four other operational Qantas A380s revealed concerns with two engines. Those engines were to be replaced, after which operation was expected to be resumed. The problems with one of these engines "could have potentially led to a repeat of Thursday's incident on QF32".[16] On 8 November 2010 the CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce, stated that the A380 fleet would remain grounded because new issues in the engines appeared,[40] including oil leaks within the engines, something Joyce said was "beyond normal tolerances".[41] Singapore Airlines, which initially stated it "did not find any issues of concern"[42] after inspecting the engines of its A380s, announced on 10 November it planned to replace three engines on three separate planes, grounding the aircraft in question until the issues were resolved.[43] The airline allowed the planes to return to Singapore after discovery of the anomaly.[43] On 10 November, Lufthansa announced the replacement of an engine on its first A380 which it termed "precautionary".[44] On 3 December, Qantas announced that a total of 16 Trent 900 engines needed to have repairs made or be replaced entirely; at the time of the announcement, the airline said five had already been replaced.[45]

Wikinews has related news: Qantas says A380 aircraft are safe to fly after 'serious' incident

On 23 November, Qantas announced that it would begin to partially return its fleet of A380s to service, beginning on 27 November.[46] Initially two of its six A380s were taken into use while the rest of the fleet stayed grounded pending inspections and engine changes.[47] The two aircraft entered service on the Sydney–Singapore–London route, where the engines use less than maximum thrust.[46] Qantas initially said it planned to refrain from using the aircraft on routes between Los Angeles and Australia, the longest routes globally served by the A380, where highest engine performance was required on take-off.[46] However, after talks with the manufacturers and regulators indicated the aircraft was safe to use, Qantas announced it would resume using the A380 on the Los Angeles routes on 11 January 2011.[48] By the end of January, Qantas operated all but one of its A380s, but did not have a timeframe for returning VH-OQA, the aircraft damaged in the accident, to service.

Reactions regarding significance

Tom Ballantyne, a writer on Orient Aviation Magazine, described the accident as "certainly the most serious incident that the A380 has experienced since it entered operations", and concerns have been voiced that this accident may be due to a "major problem", rather than being maintenance-related.[36] Qantas CEO Alan Joyce stated on 5 November that Qantas considered the likely cause "some kind of material failure or a design issue".[49]

The damage, described in The Sydney Morning Herald as "potentially life-threatening and extremely rare", caused aircraft engineer Peter Marosszeky, from the University of New South Wales to state that "I rarely ever see a failure like this on any engine", while Paul Cousins, the federal president of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association stated that "fewer than 5% of engine failures involved debris leaving the casing of the engine", as was the case in this accident.[50]

Carey Edwards described the QF32 flight as "one of the finest examples of airmanship in the history of aviation".[51]

Operational history

This Airbus A380 accident followed two previous incidents involving Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. In September 2009, an engine malfunctioned on a Singapore Airlines flight from Paris to Singapore, and a Tokyo-Frankfurt Lufthansa flight in August 2010 had engine trouble that resulted in one engine being shut down due to low oil pressure. No such incidents have been reported for the Airbus A380s that are powered by Engine Alliance turbofans (made by General Electric Aircraft Engines and Pratt & Whitney as a joint venture) and operated by Emirates and Air France.[52]

An airworthiness directive was issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency on 4 August 2010 that required inspection of certain aspects of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine.[49]

Compensation and repairs

On 22 June 2011 Qantas announced that it had agreed to compensation from Rolls-Royce of A$95 million (£62 million/US$100 million).[53] VH-OQA was repaired at an estimated cost of A$139 million (~US$145m). The aircraft has four new engines, a repaired left wing (including 6 km of wiring replaced), and had extensive on-ground testing and two test flights. It returned to Australia on 22 April, and was scheduled to return to service on 28 April 2012.[54] The repairs added 94 kilograms (207 lb) to the weight of the aircraft.[55]

Airworthiness directive

During repairs following the incident, cracks were discovered in the wings of the aircraft. As a result of the discovery, an Airworthiness Directive was issued affecting twenty A380-841, A380-842 and A380-861 aircraft that had accumulated over 1,300 hours flight. Those aircraft with under 1,800 hours flight were to be inspected within 6 weeks or 84 flights (whichever occurred first), whilst those with more than 1,800 hours flight were to be examined within four days or 14 flights.[56][57] On 8 February 2012, the checks were extended to cover all 68 A380 aircraft in operation.[58]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Aviation Safety Investigation Report 089 - In-flight uncontained engine failure Airbus A380-842, VH-OQA". Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Department of Transport and Regional Services, Government of Australia. Retrieved 4 July 2013. (Archive)
  2. ↑ "Indonesians collect debris from Qantas plane engine". ABC News. 4 November 2010. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 Accident description for VH-OQA at the Aviation Safety Network
  4. ↑ "Aircraft registration". Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
  5. ↑ Waldron, Greg (4 November 2010). "PICTURES & VIDEO: Qantas A380 makes emergency landing after losing engine cowling". Singapore: Flightglobal. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013.
  6. 1 2 Chong, Jordan (22 April 2012). "Repaired Qantas A380 arrives in Sydney". The Sydney Morning Herald. AAP. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013.
  7. ↑ "Qantas A380 specifications". Qantas. 4 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  8. 1 2 Jonas, George (20 November 2010). "Qantas's close call". National Post. 
  9. ↑ Final ATSB Report: APPENDIX D: WING FIRE
  10. 1 2 3 4 Robinson, Tim. "Qantas QF32 flight from the cockpit". The Royal Aeronautical Society. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
  11. ↑ Airbus - QF32 AIT #3, dated 17 November 2010
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "In-flight uncontained engine failure - overhead Batam Island, Indonesia - 4 November 2010 VH-OQA, Airbus A380-842" (PDF). Australian Transport Safety Bureau. ISBN 978-1-74251-118-4. Archived 12 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ↑ O'Sullivan, Matt (4 November 2010). "Qantas jet engine fails: witnesses tell of hearing explosion". The Age. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013.
  14. 1 2 "Statement on QF32 Air Return to Singapore - Aircraft has Landed Safely". Qantas Airways Limited. 4 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  15. ↑ "Design fault may have caused Qantas jet drama". news.com.au. 5 November 2010. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013.
  16. 1 2 Horton, Will (6 November 2010). "Qantas to change engines on two A380s". Sydney: Flightglobal. Archived 12 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  17. ↑ Creedy, Steve (11 December 2010). "Landing was least of Qantas A380's problems". The Australian. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013.
  18. ↑ "Qantas grounds A380s after engine failure". ABC Online. 4 November 2010. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013.
  19. ↑ "Family's terror as debris from exploding Qantas superjumbo engine tears 6ft hole in wall of family home". Daily Mail. London. 5 November 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  20. ↑ Heasley, Andrew (5 November 2010). "Explosion grounds Qantas Airbus fleet". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  21. ↑ Carswell, Andrew; Wockner, Cindy (6 November 2010). "Qantas 'not worried' about 747 fleet after second mid-air incident in two days". The Advertiser. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
  22. ↑ Crawford, Barclay; Hills, Brenden; Kearney, Simon (7 November 2010). "Richard de Crespigny, Qantas's Captain Marvel". Herald Sun. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
  23. ↑ Hughes, Tony. "What Air Crash Investigations Didn't Tell You About QF32 (Airbus A380)". Tony Hughes. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  24. ↑ "Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia (A-L)" (PDF). Australia Day 2016 Honours Lists. Office of the Governor-General of Australia. 25 January 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  25. ↑ Lowy, Joan (18 November 2010). "Cascading failures followed airline engine blowout". Washington: Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013.
  26. 1 2 Siva Govindasamy (2 December 2010). "Pipe fatigue behind Qantas A380 Trent 900 failure: ATSB". flightglobal.com. Retrieved 2 December 2010.
  27. ↑ "Trent 900 update". Rolls-Royce. 12 November 2010. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  28. ↑ "Trent 900 update". Rolls-Royce. 12 November 2010. Retrieved 23 November 2010.{}
  29. ↑ Airbus QF32 AIT 3, dated 17 November 2010
  30. ↑ "Emergency Airworthiness Directive" (PDF). EASA. 10 November 2010. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
  31. ↑ "Emergency Airworthiness Directive" (PDF). EASA. 22 November 2010. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
  32. 1 2 3 "Problems in manufacturing process led to Trent 900 failure: ATSB". Flightglobal.com. 3 December 2010. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  33. ↑ "Qantas Airbus A380 inflight engine failure". Australian Transport Safety Bureau. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  34. ↑ "Aviation Occurrence Investigation AO-2010-089 Interim-factual" (PDF). Australian Transport Safety Bureau. 18 May 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  35. 1 2 Mustoe, Howard; Rothman, Andrea (4 November 2010). "Rolls Falls Most in a Year After Engine Failure Grounds A380s". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013.
  36. 1 2 Madslien, Jorn (4 November 2010). "Qantas emergency points spotlight at Airbus and Rolls-Royce". BBC News. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  37. ↑ "Rolls-Royce 'makes progress' in A380 engine probe". BBC News. 8 November 2010. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  38. ↑ "Qantas grounds A380s after Singapore emergency landing". BBC News. 4 November 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  39. 1 2 "Delays to A380 flights". Singapore Airlines. 4 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  40. ↑ CNN Wire Staff. "Qantas' A380 fleet to remain grounded, CEO says." CNN. 7 November 2010. Retrieved on 7 November 2010.
  41. ↑ Foley, Meraiah (8 November 2010). "New Oil Leaks Keep Qantas Airbus Jets Grounded". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  42. ↑ "Singapore Air says no issue with its A380 engines". Reuters. 8 November 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  43. 1 2 Govindasamy, Siva (10 November 2010). "SIA to change three engines on A380s". Singapore: Flightglobal. Archived 12 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  44. ↑ Kaminski-Morrow, David (10 November 2010). "Lufthansa's first A380 has 'precautionary' engine change". Flightglobal.com. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  45. ↑ "Sixteen Qantas Trent-900s require modification or replacement". Flightglobal.com. 3 December 2010. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  46. 1 2 3 "Qantas to resume limited A380 services". Flightglobal.com. 23 November 2010. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
  47. ↑ Koranyi, Balazs (23 November 2010). "Qantas plan to resume A380 flights eases Rolls woes". Reuters.com. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
  48. ↑ "Qantas Prepares to Resume A380 Flying on USA Routes". Qantas. 11 January 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  49. 1 2 "Design fault 'may have caused A380 scare' - Qantas". BBC News. 5 November 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  50. ↑ Cook, Aaron (5 November 2010). "Damage rare but can be catastrophic, say engineers". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  51. ↑ Carey Edwards (2013), Airmanship p18, Blacker Limited, London, 2013.
  52. ↑ Millward, David; Bingham, John (4 November 2010). "Qantas A380 Airbus emergency is third scare for superjumbo". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  53. ↑ "Qantas announces profits and Rolls-Royce settlement". BBC News. 22 June 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  54. ↑ Chong, Jordan (20 April 2012). "Qantas A380 back in the air, 'as good as new'". Herald Sun. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
  55. ↑ Govindasamy, Siva (24 April 2012). "Qantas A380 repairs added less weight than expected to aircraft". Singapore: Flightglobal. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013.
  56. ↑ Hradecky, Simon (21 January 2012). "Airworthiness Directive regarding Airbus A380 wing cracks". The Aviation Herald.
  57. ↑ "EASA AD No.: 2012-0013" (PDF). EASA. 20 January 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  58. ↑ "Airbus to inspect all A380 superjumbos for wing cracks". BBC News Online. 8 February 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2012.

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External links


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