This is a developing story and will be updated
What do we know?
An Airbus A380 VH-OQA operating as Qantas Flight 32 from Singapore to Sydney appears to have suffered an uncontained failure of the second of four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. The flight was operated with 440 passengers and 26 crew on board. The 450-seat aircraft, MSN014, was the first delivered to Qantas in September 2008 following its maiden flight in January of that same year. This particular A380 entered service on October 20 flying Qantas Flight 93 between Mebourne and Los Angeles.
Initial reports first indicated that the A380 had crashed in Indonesia after reports of an explosion followed by debris found on the ground near the island of Batam. Those were quickly confirmed as false upon confirmation from Qantas that the aircraft was dumping fuel and returning to Singapore with an “engine issue.” The Australian Transportation Safety Board says the incident occurred around 1:30 PM ESuT and landed at 11:45 AM local time back at Singapore’s Changi Airport.
As a result of this incident, Qantas says it has “suspended scheduled A380 takeoffs until sufficient information has been obtained about what occurred on QF32.” Airbus and Rolls-Royce have both released statements on the incident, saying they will work closely with investigators to determine the cause of the failure.
This post was originally published to the internet between 2007 and 2012. Links, images, and embedded media from that era may no longer function as intended.
This post originally appeared at Flightglobal.com from 2007 to 2012.