Airbus A380's Engine Disintegrates Over Indonesia, Manages to Land Safely

By Dan Nosowitz Posted 11.04.2010 at 11:42 am 8 Comments

A380 Flickr User FaceMePLS

An Airbus A380, the massive double-decker 525-seater airplane, suffered what's being referred to as an "engine disintegration" during a flight, showering a western Indonesian island with debris. One of the plane's engines suffered some kind of failure resulting in a small explosion shortly after taking off from Singapore, but according to reports, the plane remained relatively (and surprisingly) stable and calm, turning around and landing safely back in Singapore 90 minutes later with no passenger injuries at all.

The A380, the world's biggest passenger jet, has had more than its fair share of struggles getting to market, with multiple delays and production problems. Qantas, the carrier, claims there was no explosion, which doesn't exactly jibe with passenger accounts of "a big boom" followed by flying shrapnel and a hole in the plane's wing where the engine used to be. This is the most serious mechanical problem the A380 has had so far, though not the first, and some airlines (including Qantas) are grounding their A380s until the cause of the engine failure can be found and addressed.

[MSNBC]

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8 Comments

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johnt007871

11/04/10 at 11:55 am

I think this is Qantas. Doesn't one of their planes come apart on a yearly basis? Wasn't it a Qantas plane that had a big whole blow out of the cabin mid flight in like 2008? Do they even do safety checks?

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VoodooX

11/04/10 at 12:34 pm

quantas is one of the only airlines never to have an actual crash so i am sure they do tons of safety checks

99.9999999999999% of an atom is empty space

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ithyandel

11/04/10 at 12:44 pm

come on guys, this is a very good news. it means the airplane design is sound enough to sustain flight after a engine explosion. shit happens, what happens when a tire explodes when you driving down the highway at 70Mph? this is the same thing.
praise the design that allowed the airplane to land safely. don't blame airbus or qantas for an event that is known to happen for time to time, and is part of the design requirement of every airplanes.

like i said, shit happens, and this is how it's dealt with...

stop the dramatization...

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johnt007871

11/04/10 at 12:57 pm

I think Airbus did a great job :)

It's just when I see Qantas I imagine plane damage. But yes I agree, no injuries or death I know of.

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mwa3c

11/04/10 at 3:28 pm

All this means is Roles Royce did a good job at making a fan shroud that contains a detached blade. nothing more. 15 minutes after take off this occurred.

I would say that they hit something and it broke off a fan blade.

With a fan as large as these are on the A380, i would expect this to be fairly common.

The larger the fan opening, the more likely they are to ingest FOD

Feel safe that the engine contained it's pieces without taking a wing off or putting a hole in the fuselage.

Good Roles Royce. Good boy!

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Flaming Arthropod

11/04/10 at 3:51 pm

Come on, Qantas is safe. If Rain Man will fly on it, anyone should be willing to.

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BuzzLightYear

11/04/10 at 4:49 pm