What: Qantas Airways Ltd. Boeing 747 plane with Rolls-Royce Group PLC engines Friday made an emergency landing at Singapore’s Changi airport with flames and sparks flying out of the engine. 412 passengers 3 flight crew and 16 cabin crew
What: Qantas Airbus A380, bound for Sydney, had to return to Singapore after one of its four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine 2 suffered a midair explosion, caught fire , causing damage to the aircraft’s wing and leaving a debris trail.
Two Qantas engines failing. One Boeing. One Airbus. BOTH Rolls Royce engines.
Qantas published this press release:
Major Disruptions
Latest Update on Qantas Operations
Information last updated on 6 November 2010 at 3.30pm AEDT.
Qantas has made updates to its scheduled services on Saturday 6 November and Sunday 7 November due to the grounding of its Airbus A380 fleet.
Qantas services are scheduled as follows:
Today’s QF31 service (Sydney-Singapore), normally operated by an A380, will operate on an alternative aircraft, departing Sydney at 5:30pm local time. QF31 Singapore-London will operate on a British Airways aircraft.
QF11 (Sydney-Los Angeles) will now depart at 10:15pm on November 6.
QF8006 (Singapore-Sydney) will now depart at 7:00am local time on 7 November.
QF5 (Sydney-Singapore-Frankfurt) scheduled to depart on 6 November will now depart at 8:25am local time on 7 November.
QF21 (Sydney-Tokyo) scheduled to depart on 6 November will now depart at 9:30am local time on 7 November.
Qantas is contacting customers regarding these flight changes and regular updates will be made available on qantas.com.
Qantas has done everything possible to assist customers in Singapore who have been provided with overnight accommodation and meals.
Customers in Los Angeles affected by Qantas’ suspension of A380 operations have also been accommodated, while arrangements are made to get them on flights to Australia as soon as possible.
Qantas continues to work closely with Rolls-Royce and Airbus to carry out maintenance checks on its fleet.
Qantas, the second-largest buyer of the giant plane, has grounded its fleet of six A380s until checks are completed on their Rolls-Royce made Trent 900 engines. Qantas has Rolls-Royce RB211-524G-T engines on its Boeing 747.
The engineering union accuses Qantas of sending maintenance off-shore leading to a drop in quality.
Qantas blames the design of Rolls-Royce engines, not maintenance. 92 % of the maintenance of their planes is performed in Australia, with 5,500 engineers.
A passenger aboard the flight filmed smoke pouring out of the engine-
Qantas flight QF-121 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Invercargill, New Zealand, on May 16th.
Delta Airlines flight DL-2042 had to return and make an emergency landing at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Georgia, on March 11th.
Hainan Airlines flight HU-7755 had to return and make an emergency landing in Shenzhen, China, on May 12th.