Nov. 4: Qantas grounded its Airbus 380 superjumbo fleet after one of them blew out an engine Thursday, shooting flames and raining large metal chunks before making a safe emergency landing in Singapore with 459 on board.
It was most serious midair incident involving the double-decker A380, the world’s largest airliner, since it debuted in October 2007. Qantas said there had been no explosion, but witnesses aboard the plane and on the ground reported blasts.
After the plane touched down in Singapore, the engine closest to the fuselage on the left wing had visible burn marks and was missing a section of plate that would have been painted with the red kangaroo logo of the airline. The upper part of the left wing also appeared damaged.
One passenger, Ms Rosemary Hegardy, 60, said she heard two bangs and saw yellow flames from her window. “There was flames — yellow flames came out, and debris came off.... You could see black things shooting through the smoke, like bits of debris,” she said.
Residents on the western Indonesian island of Batam, near Singapore, helped authorities pick up more than 100 pieces of debris scattered in 15 locations in Batam. The pieces, mostly small, torn metal but some the size of doors, were brought to police headquarters for the investigation.
The trouble happened 15 minutes after takeoff from Singapore at 9.56 am. The flight is a regular service that flies between Sydney, Singapore and London. Qantas’ A380s can carry up to 525 people, but flight QF34 was carrying 433 passengers and 26 crew, all of whom were evacuated by a step ladder in an operation that lasted two hours.
Qantas grounded its A380 fleet, but none of the other airlines operating the aircraft had any plans to do so.