SQ grounds three A380s

From ABC Australia:

Singapore Airlines has not ruled out grounding its entire fleet of A380 superjumbos amid concerns over their engines.

Three of the airline’s A380s were grounded today in Melbourne, Sydney and London after precautionary checks.

Rolls-Royce, the aircraft engine manufacturer, has confirmed there are oil stains on the engines, which will be replaced.

The affected planes are on their way back to Singapore with only pilots onboard.

The precautionary checks were done after last week’s emergency incident over Indonesia involving a Qantas plane.

Spokeswoman Bryony Duncan-Smith says the company’s eight other Airbus A380 planes are still in service, but this could change.

“At this stage there is no indication that more engines on our A380 aircraft will need to have precautionary engine changes carried out, but I would certainly not rule it out,” she said.

A replacement Boeing 747 has been arranged for passengers on flight SQ238 today from Melbourne to Singapore.

Passengers delayed at Melbourne airport this morning have praised the company’s handling of the incident.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry, right?” one passenger said.

Qantas grounded its six A380s last Thursday after an engine broke apart in flight, forcing QF32 to make an emergency landing in Singapore with 459 passengers and crew on board.

Yesterday, Rolls-Royce said it had made “good progress” in understanding the cause of last week’s mid-air engine blow-out.

It said the cause of the blow-out was specific to its Trent 900 engine, which powers the A380 aircraft, and a series of inspections had been agreed on with operators of the A380 and with regulators.

Earlier this week, Singapore Airlines said it had completed engine inspections on all its Airbus A380 aircraft and did not find any issues of concern.

But today the airline said, based on further analysis of the inspections, it would carry out “precautionary engine changes on three A380s”.

The silence from RR is only broken when seeing the shareprice go southwards.

I agree with Binmano the extend that the involved parties need to unify and show the public:

1. they are not resolving this indivudually

2. they are sharing data

3. Both airbus and RR are taking these issues seriosly

4. assurances that this “fault” or investigation is solely relevant to the 380 & 900.

I am sure 1 – 4 is happening, after all, there can only be less than 20 examples currently flying and I am sure the tecchies are talking (although I like no one else has any evidence of that). How reassuring it would be to hear a joint statement.

German flag-carrier Lufthansa has become the latest carrier to undertake an engine change on its Airbus A380 fleet, switching a single powerplant on its first airframe.

The airline is one of three carriers to use the Rolls-Royce Trent 900, currently under scrutiny following the uncontained failure on a Qantas A380.

Lufthansa changed a single engine on the airframe registered D-AIMA, the first A380 delivered to the airline. The jet is just six months old having arrived in mid-May.

A spokesman for the carrier points out that the decision is “precautionary”, adding that the airline has discovered “no findings” relating to the Qantas mishap.

Lufthansa says it has been carrying out checks recommended by Rolls-Royce following the uncontained failure on flight QF32 on 4 November.

Rolls-Royce has yet to determine the nature of the failure and has advised Trent 900 operators to conduct checks relating to oil leakage.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/11/10/349545/lufthansas-first-a380-has-precautionary-engine-change.html

Regards

Potakas

UPDATE The European Aviation Safety Agency has issued an airworthiness directive legally ordering operators to comply with a Rolls Royce service bulletin issued on Monday, requiring all Trent 900 engines to be checked.

The directive obliges airlines to ground all A380s with the engine until the checking process is complete.

The only operators still flying with the troubled engine as of yesterday were Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

A Singapore Airlines spokeswoman said the carrier was already fully compliant with the EASA directive as its engineers had completed the mandated checks on eight of its A380 fleet.

These had returned to service, while another three were undergoing precautionary engine changes in Singapore.

“We have completed the checks required and are fully compliant with the EASA directive,” the spokeswoman said.

Qantas is unaffected by the directive as it decided to ground its entire A380 fleet immediately after one its aircraft engines exploded over Indonesia last Thursday.

The incident prompted a series of enhanced safety measures and questions about the reliability of the Trent 900, culminating in today’s EASA directive.

The two airlines operating A380s with a different engine – Air France and Emirates – are also unaffected by the directive.

Qantas has confirmed it has introduced a temporary, updated schedule for its international network to ensure minimum disruption following the grounding of its Airbus A380 fleet.

The schedule enables Qantas to accommodate services across its entire international network over the coming weeks, regardless of when the A380s re-enter service.

Qantas said in a statement released today it was continuing an intensive inspection program on all Rolls-Royce engines in its A380 fleet, and Qantas engineers had removed three for further examination.

The engineers have been investigating the Trent 900s in detail, testing how their components and design perform under operational conditions – as opposed to original, out-of-factory expectations.

Qantas said its ongoing inspection program was fully compliant with the European Air Safety Authority’s directive on air worthiness of the Rolls Royce engines.

The specific checks mandated by the directive were already being carried out by Qantas in conjunction with Rolls-Royce.

Qantas’ A380 aircraft will not return to service until there is complete certainty they can operate safely.

Boeing 747s have been replaced by A330s on the Sydney to Narita route, and A330s have been replaced by Boeing 767s on Perth to Singapore services.

Boeing 747s have also been replaced by A330s on the Sydney to Hong Kong route.