Emirates 380 engine fire, returns to Sydney
 

(Reuters) - An A380 Emirates jet bound for Dubai was forced to return to Australia on Sunday night when one of its engines caught fire soon after take-off.

The flight, with 380 passengers on board, was just 20 minutes into its flight from Sydney to Dubai and climbing at an altitude of 10,000 feet when it experienced a problem with one of its engines.

"Emirates flight EK413 from Sydney to Dubai on 11 November turned back shortly after take-off due to an engine fault. Passengers are being re-booked on alternative flights," the airline said in a statement on Monday.

A mid-air engine blowout in November 2010 on an A380 using Rolls Royce Trent engines prompted Australia's Qantas Airlines to ground its entire fleet of Airbus superjumbos for nearly a month.

Emirates, the world's biggest user of A380s, uses rival GP7200 engines built by Engine Alliance, a joint venture between engine manufacturers General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.

Passengers on the giant double-deck aircraft, manufactured by Airbus parent EADS, said the superjumbo experienced a "judder" and then they saw flames shooting several metres out of one of the engines.

"I saw a flash. I thought it could have been lightning, but then we saw flames come out of the engine. The whole interior of the A380 lit up," passenger John Fothergill, 49, from New Zealand told Australia's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Emirates apologised for the inconvenience to its passengers and said their safety was "of the highest priority and will not be compromised."

Superjumbos, worth $375 million apiece, typically carry around 525 passengers.

A380 aircraft, manufactured in Toulouse from parts sourced across Europe, have also been affected by cracks in the wings of a small number of planes.

There are eighteen airlines currently using the aircraft with total orders outstanding for 262.

1 engine on fire in a A380...piece of cake.:}

I was wondering if this would hit the forum !

Check out the News article in Australia.

'Scary experience': A380 in Sydney mid-air engine drama


I'll highlight this bit. Just how many plane engines has he seen explode ???????
(as opposed to ingest something and spit it and flames out the back ?).


Fairfax Media motoring journalist Matt Campbell, who was on board the plane, said the aircraft was still ascending when the incident occurred.
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"It seemed about half an hour in to the flight when I saw a bright orange flash, heard a loud bang and there was a big thump through the cabin," he said. "The flight attendants were rushing about through the cabin and then eventually the PA came on and the captain said there was an engine problem with engine number three and that engine had now been shut down."
Campbell said others on board the flight heard the issue may have been caused by a bird strike.
"I didn't see flames but the flash that I saw would be consistent with an engine exploding," he said.
"It was a bright orange light, I didn't see it for more than a split second, but it was still a very scary sight."

Well, what puzzles me is... three IFSD at EMIRATES within a week...


Emirates A388 near Sydney on Nov 11th 2012, engine shut down in flight
Emirates B773 near Mumbai on Nov 7th 2012, engine shut down in flight
Emirates A388 near Kosice on Nov 7th 2012, engine shut down in flight

"An Emirates Airbus A380-800, registration A6-EDO performing flight EK-201 from Dubai (United Arab Emirates) to New York JFK,NY (USA), was enroute at FL340 about 30nm northeast of Kosice (Slovakia) when the crew shut the #4 engine (GP7270, outboard right hand) down. The aircraft set course in direction of Frankfurt/Main (Germany) descending to FL100, about 85nm east of Frankfurt the aircraft changed course to fly south around Frankfurt and divert to Paris (France). The aircraft landed safely on Charles de Gaulle Airport's runway 26R about 140 minutes after the engine was shut down.

A replacement Airbus A380-800 registration A6-EDM was dispatched from Dubai to Paris as flight EK-3073 and resumed flight EK-201 reaching New York with a delay of 12 hours.

A passenger reported the crew announced engine #4 had been shut down.

The incident aircraft was able to position to Dubai on Nov 8th as flight EK-7002 and resumed service about 35 hours after landing in Paris. "Simon Hradecky, created Saturday, Nov 10th 2012 21:31Z

'Bang then flames out the back' seems like a compressor stall.

Lack of engine parts flying about and punching holes through the aircraft structure is, on the other hand, extremely inconsistent with an engine "exploding". But what do I know... :}

Have Emirates a problem with engine maintenance or are they just unlucky ?

Well judging from the above, yes:

To lose one engine may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. :ugh:

Many engine problems eventually (sometimes within seconds) lead to a bang and a flash of flame out the tailpipe. Such a flash is a secondary event and by no means a confirmation of what started it.

Thus, just based on a report of a flash of flame one can/should not conclude what caused it without further evidence.

The earlier report of the Qantas A380 simply reported the flame/flash as a result and tied it to the cause after other facts were known.

It's too early to do the same for this event

The real gem was when Emirates was seeking damages from Rolls-Royce shortly after the QF incident, (even though Emirates has GE engine on their fleet). Emirates' claimed the QF engine failure had tarnished the image of all A-380's, thus causing a loss of value to Emirates' fleet.:{

Maybe QF, Singapore and Lufthansa will seek damages from Emirates now for the same reasoning?

Splinternici... an engine fire is NEVER a piece of cake... when will you armchair experts give it a rest... jeezus

Well since it probably wasn't on fire, that's not really a factor here :ugh:

I'm more interested in the fact that they only had 380 passengers on board.

Thirty years ago I used to carry 380 passengers on a DC-10 on a daily basis.

I freely admit that the aircraft were configured in full-Y class but it makes me wonder how far we have actually advanced versus the huge amount of capital investment in the A-380 is concerned.

380 pax, 489 seats = 77.7% load factor

I suspect EK are happy enough with that.

Helen.. I was responding to the statement that "an engine fire on an A380... a piece of cake".. read the posts properly

"F**k me!" exclaimed Aladdin, "What's that genie been on tonight?" :}

p.s. Aladdin's words, not mine.

:}

Given the smilie, and the tone, as I read it, splinterniki was being sarcastic......

Of course an engine fire is a serious issue. "read the posts properly"

Sauce/goose/gander

Basil:

Reminds me of a wonderful greeting card that I sent to my eldest son in Canada.

Chap sitting in desert rubbing the classic magic brass lamp.

Suddenly, there is this wonderful genie complete with a turban and lots of muscles coming out of the lamp.

"B*gger Me!" says chap sitting in desert.

The caption was:

"Fred was to regret this outburst!"

20 minutes to FL100?