Twenty-four hours after the A380’s first major incident, a continuing question remains around the state of the aircraft upon touchdown in Singapore and to what extent the aircraft’s systems were impacted due to the uncontained failure of engine two. Commercial jetliners for years have been designed with multiple levels of redundancy to endure even the most brutal damage. The A380’s safe return to Singapore is further evidence illustrating how the redundancy of aircraft systems provide an extra margin of designed-in safety to commercial air travel.
One video posted by Russia Today (and includes Flightglobal’s Cory Matthews footage immediately following the landing of QF32 in Singapore) shows the spoiler operation upon touchdown as filmed from the lower deck of the A380. The video shows only half of the A380’s spoilers deployed upon touchdown, further suggesting damage to the Green Hydraulic system following the engine failure. The lack of operation of the wing slats, is consistent with a failure of the Green hydraulic system as well.
Also included below (for a bit of technical background) are three slides from the Airbus Flight Deck and Systems Briefing for Pilots which describes the redundant attributes of the A380’s hydraulic system and identifies which flight controls are on which system.
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.