Airbus A380 fleet in trouble ?

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Qantas A380 incident poses Airbus cost challenge

November 4, 2010 (Reuters) -- An engine failure that forced the emergency landing of a A380 superjumbo jet in Singapore on Thursday could further delay manufacturer Airbus's bid to claw back the plane's hefty development costs. Airbus can ill afford setbacks in sales of the A380, a plane which cost 12 billion euros ($17 billion) to develop but has failed to attract airlines in some key markets including the United States and Japan. A380 orders slowed to just four last year from a peak of 85 in 2001. Concerns triggered by the emergency landing hit shares in Airbus parent EADS and Rolls-Royce, maker of the engine involved. EADS was down 2.9 percent at 18.465 euros in Paris and Rolls-Royce down 3.8 percent at 629.5 pence on London's FTSE 100 .FTSE as of 1100 GMT.

Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at brokerage BGC Partners in London, said the fire reported soon after take-off in one of the plane's four engines could mean it hit birds or collected debris, cautioning against assigning blame just yet. "Until the investigation is properly done we will not know whether it is a defined engine fault or if the explosion was caused by a malfunction of a part within the engine or outside interference such as a bird strike or debris. It could also be a maintenance-related issue," he said.

Australia's Qantas, operator of the plane which landed safely with 459 aboard on Thursday, has never suffered a fatal accident and said it was grounding all six of its A380s as a precaution. Wheeldon noted as significant the fact that other carriers were still flying the plane. Those airlines include top A380 customer Emirates; Singapore Airlines, which said that it was closely assessing the situation; and Lufthansa. Qantas said the incident did not affect its standing orders for more A380s, of which just 37 are in operation with airlines worldwide, according to Airbus.

The A380 is key to Airbus growth plans in the world's fastest-growing markets, including China and the Gulf. Airbus developed it in hopes of attracting customers looking for aircraft even larger than Boeing's aging 747 jumbo. Yet EADS posted losses on several of the first ones delivered, squeezed by higher-than-expected costs, late fees and discounted prices.

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Qantas passengers 'happy to be alive' after engine failure

November 4, 2010 -- Passengers aboard a Qantas A380 Airbus have described their relief at landing unscathed after the plane's engine disintegrated mid-flight. The flight, which originated in London and was destined for Sydney, was abandoned 15 minutes after take-off from Singapore when passengers heard a loud bang and saw smoke and sparks coming out of one engine. The pilot then informed the cabin that the engine had been shut down and the aircraft was heading back to Changi Airport.

The A380, carrying 433 passengers and 26 crew, circled for an hour dumping fuel before it landed safely at Changi at 11.45am local time. Once on the tarmac, it appeared that casing from the aircraft's number two engine was missing and parts of the aircraft's underside were blackened. The incident has raised safety concerns over the world's biggest passenger jet, with Qantas suspending flights of all six of its A380s indefinitely. Models owned by Air France, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa will continue to fly.

Lars Sandberg, a DJ from Glasgow, Scotland, who was on the plane said he was "just happy to be alive". He told the BBC website: "Everything was going smoothly in the first 15 minutes and then there was a sharp bang. I thought some metal container fell down in the cargo area, but the carriage started to vibrate and there was a bit of smoke. I was sitting right next to engine two. People around me were visibly shaken and we all realised that whatever happened wasn't normal. There was a mother with two children who was quite worried." He went on: "The landing was quite smooth, although the plane felt a bit heavy. When we landed there was fuel leaking from the plane, something ignited and blew the case of the engine. When we got off and saw the engine itself and the back casing burnt off, that was pretty scary. It was a nerve-wracking experience and I feel a little bit shaken up. I'm just happy to be alive and safe in the terminal building."

Singapore-based businessman Mr Waschbusch posted a message on social networking site Twitter shortly after landing which read: "Just emergency landed back in Singapore after engine blew up at take-off and parts ripped through wings. Damn." He told Daybreak that passengers were shouting and crying with relief when the jet landed safely. He explained: "There was immediately rapture, shouting and crying - it was an amazing sight. We didn't quite feel safe at the moment of touchdown because you've got rolling all the way till the end of the runway, we then parked at the end of the runway and we were still leaking fuel from the engine, so fire-fighters came and had to take care of the fuel leak. The (engine) one on the left hand side kept running and they weren't able to turn off that engine - so we were still half an hour or so when we were on the ground and still sceptical about what was going on and we just wanted to exit."

When the Airbus was unveiled in 2005, it was hailed as the beginning of a new era in long haul air travel. Each double-decker A380 can carry up to 500 passengers and cut travel times from London to Sydney by several hours. There have been no fatal incidents involving A380s since they were launched as the greenest, quietest – as well as the biggest – jetliner in the world. However, earlier this year one of the planes operated by Qantas burst two tyres when landing in Sydney, and in September 2009 an A380 was forced to turn around in mid-flight and return to Paris.

The latest incident comes just days before Qantas was due to celebrate its 90th anniversary. Alan Joyce, the chief executive of Australia's national carrier, said the airline had opened an investigation into what went wrong but in the meantime was taking no risks. "We have decided that we will suspend all A380 take-offs until we're fully comfortable that sufficient information has been obtained about QF32," he said in Sydney. "The A380 is a fantastic aircraft. This issue of an engine failure is one we have not seen before. We are obviously taking this very seriously, because it was a significant engine failure." Rolls-Royce, which manufactures the engines, would be involved in the investigation, he said. However, Mr Joyce said the incident would not affect pending orders for the aircraft. "We have orders for over 20 aircraft. Those aircraft will continue to arrive," he said.

There are 37 A380s in service around the world, flying 26 routes. Aviation experts have said that despite the fact that no one was injured during the incident, it was very serious. Péter Marosszéky, senior visiting fellow in the Department of Aviation at the University of New South Wales, said it was "a fairly massive internal failure".

"This type of incident has been seen previously but it was a long time ago and with much older planes than the A380," he said. "This is probably the most serious incident involving the A380 since it began flying in commercial service," said aviation expert Tom Ballantyne, chief correspondent of Orient Aviation magazine.

There was initial confusion after early reports said that the A380 Airbus had crashed in a western Indonesian town. Witnesses said that they had heard a loud explosion as a Qantas aircraft flew overhead and pieces of fuselage were found on the ground. Pictures of metal, some the size of a door bearing the red and white of the "flying kangaroo" logo, flashed on MetroTV, with people milling around. "I heard a big explosion at around 9:15am and saw a commercial passenger plane flying low in the distance with smoke on one of its wings," Rusdi, a local resident, told MetroTV. "The debris started falling on my house."

However, the Australian national carrier quickly denied that any of its planes had crashed, saying that QF32 had suffered engine problems and had been forced to turn around. Qantas has never had a fatal jetliner accident in its 90-year history. The incident took place as it emerged that Jetstar, Qantas's budget airline, had to divert one of its aircraft into Changi Airport earlier this week. Jetstar Flight JQ 28 from Phuket to Sydney, operated by an Airbus A330-200 aircraft, was diverted without incident into Singapore Changi because of a problem with the autopilot. Jetstar said that the aircraft, which was carrying 288 passengers, had "a normal landing" into Singapore. The A330-200 aircraft is undergoing inspection by Jetstar engineers based in Singapore.

A spokesman for Lufthansa said it had no plans to ground its three A380 aircraft but that it would do so if advised of any concerns by the manufacturer. An Airbus spokesman said the company would assist Singaporean authorities with their investigation.

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Qantas blames Airbus engine design

November 5, 2010 -- Qantas has revealed that faulty engine design or material failure were the most likely causes of an engine blow-out on one of its Airbus A380 superjumbos, as a thorough investigation got under way. Although Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said it was too early to say exactly what caused one of the plane's four Rolls-Royce engines to fail shortly after take-off from Singapore's Changi Airport, he said maintenance - for which the airline has responsibility - did not appear to be a significant factor.

Speaking at a news conference in Sydney, he said: "This is an engine issue and the engines have been maintained by Rolls-Royce since they were installed on the aircraft. We believe this is probably most likely a material failure or some type of design issue. We don't believe this is related to maintenance in any way."

The A380 suffered an engine blow-out about four minutes after taking off from Singapore, shooting flames and shedding metal over an Indonesian island. It landed safely in Singapore after dumping its fuel. The airline also confirmed that pieces from the engine had pierced the plane's wing. It was the most serious mid-air incident involving the double-decker A380, the world's largest passenger jet, since it debuted in October 2007 with a Singapore Airlines flight to Sydney. The plane's manufacturer, Airbus, said it had asked all airlines operating A380s with Rolls-Royce engines to inspect them to ensure safety.

Airbus has delivered a total of 37 A380s so far. Thirteen are in service with Emirates, 11 with Singapore Airlines, six with Qantas, four with Air France and three with Lufthansa. Although Qantas' fleet of A380s remained grounded today, Singapore Airlines, which also grounded its A380s after the incident, announced it had resumed flights after completing precautionary checks.