As many as half of all the Rolls Royce engines that power the A380 superjumbo may have to be replaced, according to Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce.
Joyce has grounded his airline’s own fleet of A380s following an engine blowout two weeks ago which forced the plane carrying 466 people to make an emergency landing in Singapore.
He told the Australian media: “We’ve been talking to Airbus and Rolls-Royce and we understand that the number [of engines to be replaced] is around 40. We’ve already replaced three and there could be more.”
Engineers studying the A380’s shattered engine have since discovered that leaking oil caused metal parts of the engine to disintegrate.
Since the incident, the airline’s six A380s have not left the ground.
Globally, there are 21 A380s using Rolls Royce’s Trent 900 engines operated by Qantas, Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Lufthansa, with four engines on each plane.
Both SIA and Lufthansa briefly grounded some superjumbos but having carried out safety checks, put them back into service.
Qantas says three of the Trent 900 engines will have to be removed in addition to the one that caused the emergency landing.
SIA has said it has replaced three engines and Lufthansa one but said this was not connected to the Qantas incident.
by Dinah Hatch
