Monday, November 22, 2010

Grounding of Qantas A380 Fleet May Spell a Little Inconvenience

On 4th November, the Sydney bound Qantas A380 that had to make an emergency landing in Singapore may have exploded in mid air, media reports have revealed. The flight, which took off from Singapore, was one of the six A380s owned by Qantas. All these planes are fitted with the Rolls Royce manufactured Trent 900 engines. According to investigators, the problem arose because there was leakage of oil which caught fire leading to the heating of the metal parts and bursting of the engine. The explosion churned out metal parts, some of which cut through the hydraulics and an engine control line located in the wing of the aircraft. The pilots were forced to land in Singapore as the second wing and approximately half of the brake flaps of the damaged wing spun out of control.

Alternate Arrangements

Taking serious note of this potentially fatal incident, Qantas has grounded its entire A380 fleet until safety issues are addressed completely. The airline indicated that this may take up to 7 weeks. Passengers who had made meticulous travel plans and had fulfilled their dream of buying a cheap flight ticket for the A380 are likely to be a disappointed lot. However, Qantas has assured that there would not be much inconvenience. The airline has a huge fleet that includes 14 A330s and 26 B747s along with 30 other aircrafts. This entire fleet can be used for making alternate travel arrangements for the affected passengers.

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