jamesnixon.com
_________________________________________________
QANTAS WOES
This pic, from the upper deck, was taken by passenger Christopher Lee.
A380 Engine Failure After Takeoff
The Twitter-world went crazy with reports of a QF crash into an Indonesian island. Reports were dispelled after a very tense hour. QF32 was headed from Singapore to Sydney and suffered a failure of engine No.2 six minutes after takeoff. Pieces of the rear engine cowling were recovered from nearby Batam island, a resort frequented by Singaporeans. The aircraft can easily fly with one engine-out, and even without two! Pilots are tested for this every six months, the manoeuvre is not even stressful -- even when the simulator examiner adds massive vibration and even a fire. Engine failure on takeoff is probably the most-tested item.
Photo : AFP From The Age website
Photos of the parked Qantas aircraft, after returning uneventfully to Singapore, (after dumping fuel for about 60 minutes to reduce the landing weight), show that the engine’s huge front fan was contained -- as designed. See how the engines are tested in this remarkable video, HERE. BBCworld TV shows firemen hosing foam into the No.1 engine, to flame out the engine as it could not be shut down by the crew. Heavy braking on an overweight airliner may cause the tyres to deflate as fuse plugs in wheels melt from excessive brake heat -- otherwise they could explode. Dousing the brakes with a water-foam mix prevents them from catching fire.
It turns out that the aircraft was substantially crippled, with the crew handling 52 separate procedures, (according to press reports). One hydraulic system was out, requiring the crew to manually lower the 27 tonne landing gear by gravity extension. The A380 is the first airliner to have backup electrically-powered flight control systems, so everything operated normally, except the front wing slats - so the landing speed would have been a few knots faster than normal.
An unnamed passenger reports that the Captain (there were three operating the sector - a Check or Training Flight along with a First and Second Officer) said fuel was leaking from the dead engine once it parked. ‘The landing was perfect!’ he said. Passenger Lars Sandberg told BBCworld that they dumped-fuel and that the Captain was doing PAs ‘every five minutes’ -- instilling calm and confidence in the passengers. When they deplaned there was a smell of spilt jet fuel. Another passenger, Christopher Lee gave a wide ranging interview to ABC PM, listen to it HERE. His photo (above) shows holes in the number two slat at the front of the wing.
Those of you concerned by flying and aviation technology should be amazed by how often everything works as designed, thanks to the perfectionism and professionalism of the engineers ... for which the flight crews offer their undying thanks and admiration. Think about that next time your flight is delayed due to a technical problem.
Qantas and Singapore use the Rolls Royce engines. Emirates A380s use EA (Engine Alliance) engines. Qantas has now grounded their six A380s from takeoffs until engineering data is examined. This is an engine manufacturer problem, not an airframe one, caused by the failure of a second stage compressor blade. The A380 (airframe) is still safe to fly, indeed, this incident shows just how well the aircraft performed. Singapore Airlines is continuing to fly their 12 Rolls-powered A380s.
_________________________________________________
QANTAS WOES
Qantas B747 Engine Failure After Takeoff
Another Qantas plane has had to return to Singapore after an engine failure. A Qantas spokeswoman has confirmed QF6, a Boeing 747 from Singapore to Sydney, experienced a problem with its number one engine shortly after take-off at 9:17pm (local time) Friday, and returned to land safely. Some of the passengers were also on the A380 that suffered an engine failure, see above. The poor buggers can’t take a trick.
_________________________________________________
SINGAPORE WOES
Singapore Airlines Grounds Three A380s
Singapore Airlines; another user of the Rolls Royce A380 engine, (Lufthansa is the other); has grounded three A380s after engine inspections in London and Australia. News reports on Australian radio stated that ‘the crew refused to fly on the aeroplanes’.
_________________________________________________
AIR SAFETY AWARD CANDIDATES
QF A380 Captain, First & Second
Officers Deserve Awards
As a recipient of the Air Safety Award (ASFA) and President’s Award (AOPA) in 2000, I am recommending that the operating crew of the QF A380 be given the same awards for 2010.
The following is an email being passed around by a friend of the Captain Richard Champion de Crespigny of the QF A380. It has been edited to remove emotion. Note that the facts stated have not been tested, it may contain inaccuracies. Some of the A380’s amazing redundancy has been added in italics to show that the A380 is very safe. Where possible information has been updated with reference to the ATSB Preliminary Report. This incident in a ‘classic’ airliner would have been extremely serious. Even so, ‘bad days’ like this should only be had in the simulator.
………………………….
“Here are just some of the problems Richard had in Singapore last week aboard QF32 after the engine exploded.
1. Engine No.2 Failed – with damage.
2. Fuel leak in the left mid fuel tank (the A380 has 11 tanks, including in the horizontal stabiliser on the tail which holds 18 tonnes of fuel – on such a short flight it would have held about 13 tonnes).
3. Fuel leak in the left inner fuel tank.
4. A hole on the flap canoe/fairing.
5. The aft gallery in the fuel system failed, preventing many fuel transfer functions.
6. Fuel jettison had problems due to the aft gallery problem. No jettison was carried-out.
The crew may have opted to return to land – overweight – at takeoff weight without jettisoning fuel. Unlike other aircraft, the A380 is always capable of landing at the maximum takeoff weight. This flight was about 120 tonnes under maximum takeoff weight. Landing distance would have been less than the 4,000m long runway at Singapore. It is wise, if time permits, to reduce the landing weight anytime the aircraft is crippled. In this case – on a dry runway, thrust reversers are NOT taken into account to determine landing distance. In this case (the A380 only has reversers on Engines 2 & 3), one reverser was inoperative, but the remaining one would have reduced actual landing distance moreso than indicated on the Ldg Performance module.
7.A hole in the upper wing surface.
8. Partial failure of leading-edge slats. Loss of Green system means No Slats.
9. Partial failure of speed brakes/ground spoilers. Half would have been available.
10. Shrapnel damage to the flaps. Unknown to the pilots and probably did not reduce the performance.
11. Loss of all hydraulic fluid in the Green System (the A380 has 2 x 5,000 PSI systems, Green and Yellow) – The remaining Yellow system provides that all surfaces (except Slats); are powered -- unlike all other aircraft, the A380 has electrical-hydraulic backup to all flying surfaces as a final redundancy.
12. Manual extension of landing gear. Time consuming (about 2 minutes), but not an issue. The gear weighs 27 tonnes and extends by gravity.
13. Loss of one generator. (3 others plus APU generator are available. All of them can be lost, leaving Emergency Electrical still available using the Ram Air Turbine) In fact No.1 disconnected as well when the wiring was damaged, leaving #3, #4, APU & RAT (emergency) available. Automatic shedding of ‘commercial’ electricity would have occurred although we know that there was enough to continue to run the onboard entertainment system -- one of the first things cut if there is an issue with lack of electrical power.
14. Loss of brake anti-skid system, Pilots modulate braking with reference to a pressure gauge in Alternate mode. Brakes still work, even if Normal system failed, Alternate, Emergency and Ultimate are still available, (more redundancy than any other aircraft). In fact one set of gears was in Normal mode, the other in Abnormal - without anti-skid.
15. Unable to shutdown adjacent #1 engine using normal method after landing due to damage to the electrical harness. Yet the crew had full control of Eng #1 during flight. The shutdown cabling had been destroyed, which wasn’t known until after landing. The crew adopted a novel approach using manual thrust - the autothrust had failed - they left #1 & #4 in the same position on approach, using #3 to increase and decrease speed. This is not an Airbus procedure. This may be the reason why the aircraft dropped below Approach Speed twice during the approach, kicking the auto-pilot out. The second time, at about 1,000 feet, the handling pilot elected to fly manually. The pilot was mindful of the landing distance and was making sure he was not too fast.
16. Unable to shutdown adjacent #1 engine using the fire handle after landing due to damage to the electrical harness. (see point 15 above)
17. ECAM warnings about major fuel imbalance because of fuel leaks on left side, that were unable to be solved with cross-feeding; (the A380 can still fly with an imbalance).
18. Fuel trapped in Trim Tank (in the rear stabiliser). Therefore, possible CofG out-of-balance condition for landing, but not outside the flight envelope.
Further information has become available:
19. Bus #2 is supposedly automatically powered by Bus #1 in the event of Engine #2 failure - this didn’t happen. As AC Bus 1+2 both failed -- as cabling to the #1 Generator was severed and #2 engine was inop.
20. After some time the RAT deployed for no apparent reason, locking-out (as a load-shedding function) some still functioning services. It seems the aircraft was in Emergency Electrical configuration. The self-deployment would have arisen due to the main electrical busses not being powered. This is not mentioned in the Preliminary Report and contradicts evidence that the passenger entertainment system was still working..
21. One of the frequently recurring messages warned of the aircraft approaching the aft CoG limit (the procedure calls for transferring fuel forward), the next message advised of fwd transfer pumps being u/s. This sequence occurred repeatedly. Gravity feed should have been available but it is time consuming.
22. Landing / approach speeds are obtained from the FOIP, but there weren't sufficient fields to load all the defects for speed corrections - the crew loaded what they thought were the most critical ones.
23. The crew commenced an approach NOT because they'd sorted out all the problems but because they were very worried about the steadily worsening lateral imbalance.
24. The aircraft stopped with just over 100 metres or runway left, brakes temps climbed to 900C and fuel pouring out of the ruptured tank. Unable to shutdown #1 engine (as previously mentioned) but elected not to evacuate as the fire services were attending in great numbers. It turns out that Normal braking was available and used on two bogies and Alternate used on the other two. The ‘100 metres’ statement was correct, but the crew modulated braking so they pulled-up near the RFF crews. If they had wished to stop in a shorter distance they could have. The crew had full control of engine #1 throughout the flight, they just couldn’t shut it down.
25. The source of the above comments were from someone who was on the flight deck.
The Captain was in the left seat, First Officer in the right, Second Officer in the right rear second observer seat with his own Radio Management Panel, so he probably did most of the coordination with the ground.
A Check & Training Captain was in the first observer seat (middle). He training another Captain, (who was in the third observer seat, left rear), to become a Check & Training Captain.
All five guys were flat out, especially the F.O. who would have been processing complicated 'ECAM' messages and procedures.”
Normally the entire process would have been handled by Captain and First Officer only. The A380 is a two-pilot aeroplane and all sim sessions for other airlines are handled by two crew only. (i.e. All other A380 operators do not have Second Officers to do radio work).
_________________________________________________
QANTAS WOES CONTINUE
Celebrating It’s 90th Year
Qantas A380 engine suffers catastrophic failure returns safely to land in Singapore
Qantas B747 engine suffers failure after takeoff returns safely to land in Singapore
Qantas B747 suffers hydraulic problem arriving in London Heathrow
Qantas B767 engine suffers vibration returns safely to land in Perth
Qantas B747 ‘smoke in cockpit’ returns safely to land in Sydney (15th Nov 2010)
Qantas / Jetstar A320 hydraulic failure returns safely to land in Brisbane (16th Nov 2010)
Qantas B747 engine suffers damage after bird-strike returns safely to land in Jo’burg (17th Nov)
First ‘non-Qantas’ news for a fortnight ...
Virgin Blue aircraft ‘smell in cockpit’ returns safely to land in Melbourne (19th Nov 2010)
Qantas B747 engine suffers ‘a problem’ while QF1 was taxying towards a runway in Sydney (28th Nov)
Qantas B747 engine ‘cooks itself’ while taxying towards a runway in Sydney (16th Jan)
Qantas B737 performs emergency descent after depressurisation ADL-MEL (25th Jan)
Qantas B747 engine ‘consumes more fuel than normal’ return to land at Bangkok (25th Jan)
Congratulations must go to all the crews, who despite the bad publicity for the brand during their 90th birthday celebrations, stick to the procedure and perform inflight and on ground returns -- thereby adding to the media speculation. We must never castigate pilots for taking the safest option, even when it ruins passengers’ travel plans; ... the old adage still applies:
“What’s worse than be stuck on the ground when you should be in the air?”
“... being stuck in the air when you should be on the ground.”
Being under the media magnifying glass is hell, as all Ansett Airlines refugees will attest. If passengers start leaving the airline in droves, the Flying Kangaroo may well bounce into oblivion.
_________________________________________________
QANTAS A380s FLYING AGAIN
CEO On First Flight To SIN-LHR
The CEO, Alan Joyce, was onboard the uneventful flight as a show of faith in the modifications made to the Rolls Royce engines.
From "The Qantas Source" website HERE dated 24th November 2010 ... the source and accuracy of this information has NOT been checked or confirmed.
The damaged number two engine of the Qantas Airbus A380
in Singapore is removed from the wing on November 13, 2010. (Reuters)
from the ABC News website
‘’A380 QF32 aftermath and future plans:
VH-OQA sustained serious damage to the left hand wing during the QF32 incident. The aircraft is still held and under investigation. The aircraft is repairable but will require a new left wing. This will need to be manufactured, flown to Singapore and then fitted. This process will take several months.
VH-OQB is at Frankfurt where it was undergoing “C” Check at Lufthansa. There are no plans to return this aircraft to service until new engines have been sourced.
VH-OQC is at Sydney. There are no plans to return this aircraft to service until new engines have been sourced.
VH-OQD is at Los Angeles. There are no plans to return this aircraft to service until new engines have been sourced.
VH-OQE has positioned to Sydney. This aircraft has been retro-fitted with technical modifications made to components within the engines and will return to service this year.
VH-OQF has positioned to Sydney. This aircraft has been retro-fitted with technical modifications made to components within the engines and will return to service this year.
VH-OQG will be delivered shortly. This aircraft already had technical modifications made to components within the engines and will enter service immediately.
VH-OQH will be delivered shortly. This aircraft already had technical modifications made to components within the engines and will enter service immediately.
All aircraft flying will require engine inspections every 20 cycles according to EASA Airworthiness Directive. Those aircraft in service will be restricted to QF9/10/31/32 as these routes do not require maximum thrust to be used at take-off. There are no plans to re-introduce A380s to Los Angeles routes at this time.
The engine modifications to the Trent 900 engines were already in production before the QF32 incident which indicates that Rolls-Royce may have been aware of potential issues with the original design. The engines on VH-OQE, VH-OQF and the new build aircraft appear to have minor differences to the engines on the first four aircraft making them suitable for the component modifications.
The QANTAS A380 engines are owned by a Hong Kong bank and maintained by Rolls-Royce with QANTAS paying on a “power by the hour” basis. It is unclear whether QANTAS were aware of the differences to the engines on VH-OQE/F. The engines on VH-OQA/B/C/D may need to be replaced with new engines, possibly from the A380 production line, with the original engines returning to Rolls-Royce for rebuild.
Both QANTAS and Airbus have made it clear that they will be seeking significant compensation from Rolls.”
_________________________________________________
QF32 PRELIMINARY REPORT
ATSB Releases The Report
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released the Preliminary Report into the Qantas A380 engine failure, read it HERE Information from the report has been added in orange to the list of failures dealt-with by the QF32 crew detailed below under the heading: AIR SAFETY AWARD CANDIDATES
_________________________________________________
QANTAS DEPRESSION
747 ‘Cooked Itself’
Passengers taxying out from SYD airport before taking-off to LA were surprised when the Captain announced that one of the engines had ‘cooked-itself’; before returning to the gate. It must be hard to deliver the news ... but, as always, better to be in the ground wanting to get into the air ... than being in the air wanting to be on the ground. - 17th January 2011
To see the list of Qantas Woes since the A380 incident in Singapore, scroll down to QANTAS WOES CONTINUE
_________________________________________________
QANTAS DEPRESSURISATION
737 Rapid Descent
Two Boeing 737 pilots had a bad day in the office flying QF670 from Adelaide to Melbourne this morning when their pressurisation failed. They performed a rapid descent, deploying the oxygen masks, and proceeded to their destination at 10,000 feet - an altitude where supplemental oxygen is not required (for healthy passengers).
As usual the hacks at the Herald-Sun fired-up the dust-covered beat-up machine. Thank god there is always one shocked passenger, who has never watched a safety video or glanced at a Safety On Board card, who is ready to chat. Today he is Simon, a ‘brave’ chef from Adelaide, and his eye-witness account can be found HERE. - 25th January 2011
To see the list of Qantas Woes since the A380 incident in Singapore, scroll down to QANTAS WOES CONTINUE
_________________________________________________
QANTAS DEPRESSION II
747 Returns To Bangkok
A Boeing 747, QF2, started ‘consuming fuel more quickly than normal’ about 30 minutes after takeoff. It returned to Bangkok and another engine was flown up from SYD as a replacement. - 25th January 2011
To see the list of Qantas Woes since the A380 incident in Singapore, scroll down to QANTAS WOES CONTINUE
_________________________________________________