Catastrophic Failure Had "Nothing To Do" With Airline Operations

The CEO of Qantas Airways said in an interview Saturday that Rolls-Royce was to blame for the catastrophic failure of a Trent 900 engine on a Qantas A380 which caused the airline to ground its fleet of six of the superjumbos.

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Reuters reports that Alan Joyce said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Company that it was "absolutely clear" that nothing Qantas did caused the engine to fail shortly after takeoff from Singapore on November 4. The airplane landed safely back in Singapore. "It was an engine that didn't perform to the parameters that we would've expected," he said.

While the airline returned the A380s to service Saturday, Joyce said that they were not yet being flown on trans-pacific routes following consultation with Rolls-Royce and Airbus about the engines. The engine manufacturer said the engines are required to perform at higher power settings for longer periods of time during the long over-water crossings. Joyce did not say when the A380s would resume flights between Australia and Los Angeles.

FMI: www.qantas.com