Oil Fire Blamed in Qantas Engine Failure

Euro safety regulator orders inspections of all Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 11, 2010 6:35 AM CST
Oil Fire Blamed in Qantas Engine Failure
A jagged and bent piece of a turbine disc from a Qantas superjumbo Rolls-Royce engine that exploded Thursday, Nov. 4, 2010.   ((AP Photo/ATSB) EDITORIAL USE ONLY)

An oil fire may have caused the engine blowout that forced one of Qantas's superjumbos to make an emergency landing last week in Singapore. Europe's aviation safety regulator today issued the finding, reports the AP, and ordered airlines to undergo "repetitive inspections" of all planes with Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. Qantas said it will continue to keep its six A380s grounded pending further tests.

The European Aviation Safety Authority warned in an emergency directive that leaks could result in "uncontained engine failure" (for more on why that's catastrophic, click here), the third directive issued this year for the Trent 900 engines. An earlier directive also identified the same area of the engine under scrutiny now as a potential source of problems. "I expect Rolls-Royce is working to fix this very quickly," says an industry expert.
(More Qantas stories.)

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