QANTAS, Australia’s biggest airline, has grounded its entire A380 fleet after an engine on one of the aircraft exploded yesterday.
The flight, with 433 passengers and 26 crew, made an emergency landing at Singapore’s Changi Airport after what were described as “explosions” were heard shortly after take-off.
The flight had been bound for Sydney. All on board are said to be safe and well.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, who is from Dublin, said the incident would be investigated by the airline, the manufacturers and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. He said no A380 had previously experienced engine failure.
“This is absolutely the first issue that’s occurred, with this engine failure; as I said it’s a significant engine failure,” Mr Joyce said. “As a precaution we’re suspending the flights of the A380 aircraft until we’re comfortable that we understand the reasons for this and comfortable that we can operate the aircraft again.”
Passenger Christopher Lee told ABC Radio in Australia that he heard an explosion about 15 minutes after take-off.
“After leaving Singapore there was an explosion, there was a loud bang followed by another one, and then a rattling of the cabin,” he said.
“Some of the passengers then alerted cabin staff to the fact that there was an explosion, there was smoke or something to that effect.”
Mr Lee said the landing went well despite being an emergency.
“I fly on many international flights and probably do, if not one a week, sometimes two a week, and it’s one of the smoothest landings I’ve had, actually,” he said.
Parts of the aircraft came down on the Indonesian island of Batam, south of Singapore. Local authorities said a teacher and student were injured when debris fell on to a school roof.
Mr Joyce said Qantas, which has never had a fatal accident involving a passenger jet, took safety very seriously.
“We do take our safety reputation and our safety standards unbelievably seriously and we’re not going to take any risks with passenger safety.” He said the incident was not caused by poor aircraft maintenance.
“This is an engine issue so this is not related to the aircraft . . . it’s not related to any maintenance of the aircraft,” he said.
The double-decker A380 is the world’s largest passenger aircraft; Qantas is one of only five airlines using them.
If you wish to find out about someone who was on the QF32 flight, the 24-hour emergency number, which can be called from Ireland, is 0061 2 6261 3305.