It is unfortunate that Qantas is subject to so much bad news, most coming from the maintenance union. They are not happy that engine maintenance is done by Rolls-Royce and heavy 380 maintenance done by Lufthansa, but very good decisions by Qantas. Soon we will know what happened.

In the meantime we need to keep in mind that Qantas has the best safety record in the business (zero accidents is quite good, is it not?) and we may be positive that RR, Lufthansa, Australian Safety authorities and Qantas are working 100% to find out the details.

The RR Trent 900 used on QF (SQ and BA also) A380's has a system called EHM (Engine Health Monitoring) that offers continuous and extensive data on engine metrics. We may be certain that there has already been exhaustive analysis done and that the physical destruction caused has been also evaluated quite extensively. Obviously Joyce cannot say anything definite prior to having certainty. Equally obviously, there can be no higher priority for RR, Airbus or Qantas at the moment.

BTW, Emirates operates with a different engine on it's A380's, the GP7000 made by GE and Pratt and Whitney in a joint venture.

Airbus is investigating. We will have answers soon.......



"Airbus, Rolls Begin Probe of Engine Blowout on Qantas A380 Jet"

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?...XP3yEb0A&pos=8

It would if it were true. Zero acidents with jet aircraft (if one excludes exploding oxygen cylinders), but a few post WWII accidents with prop driven aircraft.....

A more balanced article on BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11692362

Not that markets are efficient or any nonsense like that, but:

Qantas shares up 0.7% http://www.google.com/finance?q=QAN

Airbus down about 3.5% http://www.google.com/finance?q=EPA%3AEAD

Rolls Royce shares down over 5% http://www.google.com/finance?q=LON:RR

Anyone know how many A380's in fleet? What QF may replace them with, as imagine major seat changes coming over the next 3-4 weeks.

Wonder if RR and Airbus contacting the other handful of carriers for inspection logs on remaining A380's in service.

LH does not do maintenance on the QF A380 engines.

How do we know if the problem is maintaince related, or more likely an engine fault.

A serious question. What is the warranty for an aircraft and its engines?

If you are spending so many millions, there must be a warranty on the km flown.

That is neither mine, nor I guess Rambuster's point.

I was just remarking that LH issued a statement that they see no reason for looking into possibly grounding their A380s

I am not saying there might be a reason to ground them.

All I am saying is there might be good reasons, to look into that...

Knowing that despite what that loudspeaker said, LH is absolutly looking into the situation, there could have been a better response that doesn't sound like a denial or as if they were neglecting their duties as an responsible operator and industry leader in safety.

According to CNN.com SQ just grounded its fleet of A380s

I presume the RR engine on the A380 is totally different from the RR engine made for the 787 that also had a similar problem (uncontained failure)?

I agree. There is a cause for concern. The problem is whether they know what they are looking for -it's all very well to inspect an engine -but inspect it for what exactly?!

Just saw this on the news now. I think Singapore and Qantas grounding all of the A380s for now. Glad everyone/thing was ok.

this just posted on twitter:

tell me this would not scare the crap out of you if you looked out the window mid-air!

http://twitpic.com/33spxm