Engine trouble forces Qantas to divert to Dubai

An engine fault forced a Qantas Airways A380 plane bound for London to divert to Dubai on Friday, exactly a year since a mid-air engine blowout prompted the Australian airline to ground its entire fleet of A380 superjumbos for nearly a month.

The Airbus aircraft had an "oil quantity defect" in one engine which was switched off according to standard procedure, a Qantas spokeswoman in Sydney said, adding Qantas engineers would investigate the problem.

The plane, with 258 people on board, including English actor, comedian and writer Stephen Fry, landed safely in Dubai.

"The two issues are completely unrelated. This is a one-off and we will look to get the aircraft back in the skies as soon as possible," spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said, referring to the latest incident and the engine explosion a year ago.

Each Qantas A380 is powered by four Rolls Royce engines. The carrier has 10 A380s in service and is due to take delivery of two more by year-end. It also has two more on order and deferred the delivery schedule for six others.

"We are aware that an A380 operated by Qantas diverted to Dubai as a precautionary measure. We are working with the airline to look into this matter," Airbus spokesman Sean Lee said in an email to Reuters.

Airbus has sold 236 A380s. By the end of September this year, it had delivered 57. The four-engined double-decker airplanes sell for $375 million each at list prices.

A Rolls Royce spokesman said the company was aware of the incident and was working closely with Qantas to provide appropriate support and technical assistance.

A Qantas Airbus A380 aircraft suffered an engine explosion on Nov. 4 last year, after it had taken off from Singapore for Sydney. It returned to Singapore and landed safely.

Qantas, which has one of the best safety records in the industry, blamed an oil fire for the blowout

In last year's engine blowout, a turbine disc disintegrated and sent supersonic shards of metal through the aircraft's wing, severing systems and narrowly missing the cabin. Investigations have pinpointed a suspected manufacturing fault in an oil pipe which could lead to oil leaks and ordered regular safety checks.

Rolls-Royce, which competes with a General Electric and Pratt & Whitney joint venture to power the A380, says it has solved the problem and replaced or upgraded engines.

Rolls Royce engines power the A380 fleet of Qantas, Singapore Airlines, and Lufthansa and China Southern.

Qantas resumed A380 services on Nov. 27 after engine inspections concluded the airplane was safe to fly.

The latest incident follows a series of setbacks for Qantas, which is emerging from the grounding of its entire fleet over the weekend to gain the upper hand against trade unions in a long-running and costly labour dispute.

The weekend shutdown stranded almost 70,000 passengers but succeeded in forcing the government and the nation's labour tribunal to intervene and ban all further strikes at Qantas.

 

Stephen Fry tweets Qantas diversion live

British actor and TV wit Stephen Fry provided expletive laden live coverage of the unexpected diversion of a Qantas plane to his three million Twitter followers on Friday.

The embattled Australian airline was carrying Fry to London from Singapore on an Airbus A380 when the pilot noticed a problem with one of its four engines and changed route to Dubai where all the passengers were forced to disembark.

"Still stuck on Dubai tarmac. No one seems to know how long we'll be here. Should've landed in London at 6:20. That won't happen! "

Fry told his 3.3 million followers on Twitter.

"Not a great week for Qantas," he added.

Fry, who had been touring Australia for his programme "QI", was one of the 283 passengers on the flight who then spent some time on the tarmac in Dubai as airline staff decided what to do next.

"Bugger. Forced to land in Dubai. An engine has decided not to play," was Fry's first light-hearted take on micro-blogging site Twitter on the matter.

After regular updates on what was happening, including that he was on a bus from the plane to the airport terminal, the prolific Tweeter launched an expletive laden Tweet to his 3.3 million followers.

"I've left my wallet on the sodding plane," he revealed. "Hell's teeth this really isn't my day. Will not leave without it."

"It's at times like this a man considers taking up smoking again. Possibly with heroin, crack and MDMA mixed in & all washed down with vodka."

The tweets prompted this reply from Qantas' Twitter account: "Mr Fry, don't worry we will get your wallet back. We know the crew are keeping you updated and we are talking with them. So sorry."

And they did. "Reunited with wallet & cards so v relieved! Hurrah," wrote Fry.