Qantas A380 incident down to design issue, speculates chief exec
Saturday, 08 Nov, 2010
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The Qantas A380 forced into an emergency landing on Thursday probably had a design fault, according to chief executive Alan Joyce.
The airline boss told a press conference in Sydney that investigators were studying the incident to provide answers but the reason was “most likely a material failure or some type of design issue” with the Rolls Royce engine.
He added that the blowout was not related to the maintenenace of the plane, which is only two years old.
The plane was travelling from London to Sydney when white smoke began emerging from one of the engines near the left wing.
The plane landed safely at Changi Airport and there were no injuries.
Qantas reacted to the incident by grounding its A380 fleet. It is now carrying out a series of checks along with Rolls Royce engineers and will not allow the jumbo planes to fly again until all these checks have been carried out.
Qantas has never had a fatal air crash and Joyce told the news conference: "We regard our safety reputation as the most important thing we have."
Meanwhile Singapore Airlines passengers should expect delays after the carrier has decided to carry out checks on its own A380 fleet following advice from Rolls Royce.
by Dinah Hatch
Dinah
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