Rolls-Royce says US lawsuit ‘without merit’

British aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings said it was confident a lawsuit brought against it by two former employees would be found to be without merit.

Two former Rolls-Royce employees in the US are challenging a court order that prevents them from releasing information they say reveals potentially serious defects in its manufacturing processes, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The report said the two former quality control officers at Rolls-Royce Corp, part of Rolls’s US unit, allege the company hid internal records of defects in engines it sold to commercial and military clients.

Last month an Australian safety regulator reported that Rolls had failed to identify a defect that caused one of its engines to explode on a Qantas Airways flight over Indonesia three years ago. – (Reuters)