Qantas grounds all superjumbos after engine blowout

It was the QF32 from London. Could have been the same plane that had problems with its front landing gear last year at Heathrow when the pilot decided to do a "go-around". Qantas had a similar engine problem with a 747 at SFO. Maintenance? The A380 might be a new plane but it had quite some fuel and computer glitches that grounded several A380s. Last November an Air France A380 had to return to JKF because of navigation problems.

Maintenance by Lufthansa, apprently. Qantas have just grounded their whole A380 fleet.

Pieces of the engine ripped up right through the wing. Potentially very nasty. I hope they can rule out terrorism first and foremost.

Qantas still the only airline in the world that hasn,t crashed,hopefully this is a warning....

Qantas still the only airline in the world that hasn,t crashed,hopefully this is a warning....

True, they haven't crashed yet. But they have quite a long list of incidents and accidents. Besides, the only airliner in the world that hasn't crashed? You gotta be kidding, right?

As I have mentioned in several previous post, I am, as I type, on the "western Indonesian island of Batam". This is a comparatively small island and Batam Central is the hub of commerce here. The debris landed around the most popular shopping mall(I have been there many times) and has caused quite a stir around here. I got here in August and in the past three months three have been big volcanic eruptions by two volcanoes, a major earthquake, a tsunami and now a plane dropping debris on a shopping center. Never a dull moment here, Indonesia rocks........literally.

@techall

Have you ever thought that maybe it's you?

I just told the staff in the bar at the hotel where I am staying the exact same thing. maybe they will give me an all expences paid vacation just to get me off the island!

By the way, I didn't mention the riot we had at the shipyard.

So, after 15 minutes of flying there's an emergency. It then takes an hour and thirty-five minutes to get the plane back on the ground and 2 hours to evacuate all the people?! Isn't that a bit long? I would think they could have used something more than a step ladder for an emergency evacuation. Don't those jumbo jets have chutes for that sort of thing? Glad everyone made it off alive but the details of the evacuation make me wonder about Qantas and Singapore Airport's readiness to handle a crisis. Need more detailed information, I guess.

Other sites are praising the captain and cabin crew for doing exactly the right things. They needed that time to empty the fuel tanks for relanding so soon after take-off. The engine that wouldn't shut down was smothered in foam. They deployed the stairs as the captain ascertained that there was no rush, apparently. (Emergency slides usually cause a percentage of injuries themselves)

So, after 15 minutes of flying there's an emergency. It then takes an hour and thirty-five minutes to get the plane back on the ground and 2 hours to evacuate all the people?! Isn't that a bit long?

I understand that they were dumping fuel before landing. That could take a while.

I understand that they were dumping fuel before landing. That could take a while.

Call me crazy but being in the air for another 90+ minutes after watching one of the engines blow out makes me want to invest in new ways to dump fuel from planes....

Sounds like the engine sucked in something it shouldn't have. A big bird or something like that. This would cause a surge and a fire and debris to be spit out. It must have been pretty big too for panels to get knocked off.

SuperLib, I don't know how much fuel that thing holds but I bet it's alot. With probably only 2 dump masts on each end of the wings somewhere that could take a while.

Call me crazy but being in the air for another 90+ minutes after watching one of the engines blow out makes me want to invest in new ways to dump fuel from planes... It's much more dangerous to try landing with the tanks full of kerosene than flying it over 90 minutes. Besides, the captain must follow his training, and he surely did. Everybody is safe and sound, isnt' it the most important aspect of this event?

Do not think the engine ingested anything. It looks like a turbine failure. Any FOD would have to pass the compressor and burner cans.