Nearly Half Of The Trent 900 Engines In The Fleet May Be Suspect

A Qantas spokesperson said Thursday Rolls-Royce may be facing the replacement of as many as 40 of its Trent 900 engines hung on the wings of Airbus A380 aircraft worldwide.

File Photo

One of the engines failed catastrophically November 4th on a Qantas A380 shortly after departure from Singapore. Qantas' superjumbo fleet has been grounded since.

The international news service AFP reports that a Qantas spokesperson estimates that as many as 40 of the engines may suffer the same defects as the one blew up on the Qantas airliner. The A380 is in service with five airlines around the world, though not all have the same model Rolls-Royce engine.

Rolls-Royce had already developed a procedure to modify the Trent 900 engine to prevent oil leaks such as the one suspected in the November 4th incident. None of Qantas' airplanes had been upgraded before it occurred. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said as many as 14 of the engines on his company's airplanes might need to be replaced.

Qantas said it was in discussions with Rolls-Royce for compensation for the disruption of its scheduled service on the A380.

FMI: www.qantas.com, www.rolls-royce.com