engines for sale The ATSB has indicated that it will provide a preliminary report in early December; until then we can only speculate.
Speculation is that the A380 came close to crashing due to loss of
engines systems, the severity of which was partially understood by the 5 pilots on board, and partially determined later after it was on the ground. Some indications that it was within an hour of becoming uncontrollable; if so that would seriously compromise the airworthiness of the airframe.
The damage that is known:
1. at least 2 punctures in the fuel tank with leaking of fuel
2. loss of one of 2 hydraulic lines (shown by loss of control surfaces and having to gravity drop the landing gear)
3. loss of fuel management system due to shrapnel damage (so fuel could not be pumped from the wing to other tanks)
4. failure of engine control on the "good" engine on that wing (so it could not be throttled or shut down)
5. failure of fire control systems in both engines
6. size of hole in wing seen to be increasing during flight
There is more, but if the engine failure had occurred later in flight, it might have been difficult to reach an airport. Perhaps QF grounding the A380 is partly to digest these non-engine aspects and provide pilot training to deal with such "rare and unexpected" failures. Until the ATSB investigation is published, only QF knows the full extent of damage, how it was handled and what corollaries it has.