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Singapore Air to change oil-stained A380 engines
By Harry Suhartono and Balazs Koranyi SINGAPORE/SYDNEY | Wed Nov 10, 2010 12:14am EST
SINGAPORE/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Singapore Airlines will replace engines on three of its Airbus A380 planes after finding oil stains on them, almost a week after Australian rival Qantas grounded its A380 fleet due to an engine failure. Qantas' six A380s have been grounded since Thursday, when a Rolls-Royce engine partly disintegrated mid-flight, forcing the fully laden Airbus to make an emergency landing in the biggest incident to date for the world's largest passenger jet.
Investigations into that incident have focused on oil leaks inside the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, the same model used to power Singapore Airlines' and German Lufthansa's A380 fleet. But Singapore Airlines stressed the problems on three of its 11 A380s were precautionary and unrelated as the oil stains were different from the oil leakage in the Qantas turbines.
Singapore's findings may deal a fresh blow to Rolls Royce, which moved on Monday to contain a crisis of confidence, saying it was making progress in understanding what caused last week's blowout on the Qantas A380 flight. "This is a precautionary move to find out what caused the oil stains." a Singapore Airlines spokeswoman said. "Rolls Royce recommended a detailed inspection of the engines."
Rolls Royce shares already lost over 7 percent since the Qantas incident, while Airbus and Qantas shares both slipped 2.5 percent each. Singapore Airlines shares were little affected on Tuesday with the stock down 0.4 percent by 0350 GMT. A spokesman for Rolls Royce declined to comment. Experts said the Qantas investigation is pointing to a design fault with the engine which may not be difficult to fix but will take time.
"From information provided to date, it would appear to be a design issue and not a power setting issue. Lower power settings are not the solution," said Peter Marosszeky, an aviation expert at the University of New South Wales. He added similar engine issues are not unknown to the aviation industry and a fix could be relatively easy, but it could take some time. "Until then, what could happen is Airbus would allow operators to fly the A380 on a limited basis with restrictions on the engines," Marosszeky added.
However, restriction could be a problem for Qantas, as its routes from Los Angeles to Australia are the longest served by the A380, and lower power limits would mean weight restrictions, making flights less economical. Sources earlier told Reuters that Qantas is reviewing the way it operates its A380s engines and whether its higher power settings on take-off contributed to the engine failure.
Singapore Airlines' three affected airplanes, scattered in London, Melbourne and Sydney, are being flown back to Singapore to be equipped with similar Rolls Royce engines. One of the jets took off from Sydney around 0400 GMT while the passengers scheduled to be on the airplane are being transferred to other flights, a Reuters reporter at the airport said.
Qantas is expected to give an update on its A380 fleet by Thursday afternoon. The airline said on Monday it would ground its six planes for at least 72 hours. "We are still continuing with checks," a Qantas spokesman said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, a Boeing 787 test flight made an emergency landing in Texas with smoke in the cabin, the first incident of its kind, putting additional scrutiny on the already delayed programme.
($1=1.291 Singapore Dollar)
(Additional reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe in SINGAPORE and Michael Smith in SYDNEY; Editing by Jean Yoon)
