Looking back on Qantas 32

Qantas Flight 32 was a scheduled passenger flight from London (LHR/EGLL) to Sydney (SYD/YSSY) via Singapore (SIN/WSSS). 

QANTAS AIRBUS A380-842-VH-OQA (MSN 014)

On the 4th of November 2010, the aircraft operating the route, an Airbus A380, suffered an uncontained failure in one of its four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. The failure occurred over the Riau Islands, Indonesia, four minutes after takeoff from Singapore Changi Airport. After holding for almost two hours to assess the situation, the aircraft made a successful emergency landing at Changi. No injuries occurred to the passengers, crew, or people on the ground, despite debris from the aircraft falling onto houses in Batam.

The airplane took off from runway 20C at 09.56 local time. Following a normal takeoff, the crew retracted the landing gear and flaps. The crew reported that, while maintaining 250 kts in the climb and passing 7,000 ft above mean sea level, they heard two 'loud bangs', followed shortly after by indications of a failure of the No 2 engine. The aircraft levelled off and because of an overheat warning of engine No 2, thrust for this engine was moved to 'idle'. Meanwhile, at 10:02, when the airplane was flying over Batam Landmass, the crew radioed a PAN call to the Approach Controller citing a possible engine failure. At that time, the pilot of QFA 32 maintained height on 7,500 feet and requested to be on heading 150 degrees to investigate the problem but did not request to return to Singapore immediately.

At 11.45am Qantas 32 touched down on 20C, and as a result of the aircraft landing 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) faster than its normal landing speed, four tyres were blown.

While the aircraft was stopping abeam taxiway E10, Changi’s Airport Emergency Service (AES) found that engine number 2 was damaged near the rear of the engine and fuel had leaked from the port side (left wing). Moreover, there was smoke from tyre number 7 and there were 4 tyres deflated, meanwhile, the pilot was not able to shut off engine number 1. Nevertheless, it was safe to disembark passengers. Exactly at 13:54, all passengers had been disembarked, and finally at 14:53, engine number 1 was finally able to be shutdown.

On later inspection, a turbine disc in the aircraft's number-two engine (on the port side nearer the fuselage) was found to have disintegrated, causing extensive damage to the nacelle (a nacelle refers to the whole covering of an engine,) wing, fuel system, landing gear, flight controls, and engine controls, and a fire in a fuel tank that self-extinguished. The subsequent investigation concluded that the failure had been caused by the breaking of a stub oil pipe, which had been manufactured improperly.

The aircraft involved was an Airbus A380-842, registration number VH-OQA, serial number 014. The aircraft entered service in September 2008, it was the first of 8 A380 delivered to Qantas and had four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines; it was named Nancy-Bird Walton in honour of an Australian aviation pioneer. After completing repairs in Singapore, estimated at A$139 million, the aircraft returned to Sydney in April 2012.