Australian investigators have traced the in-flight shutdown of a Qantas Airbus A380’s engine in May 2017 to corrosion caused by chemical residue associated with a cleaning procedure used during the powerplant’s overhaul nearly two years before the incident.
According to the
Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s (ATSB’s) final report on the in-flight shutdown incident, released Thursday, internal corrosion of low-pressure turbine stage 2 (LPT2) blades resulted in fatigue failure and separation of blade debris and significant downstream damage through the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine. “The blade corrosion resulted from chemical residue associated with the cleaning procedure used during the last engine service,” ATSB said.
Qantas Flight QF94 was about two hours into a scheduled flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Melbourne, Australia, and the flight crew had just increased thrust on all four engines to climb to a higher flight level when they heard a loud bang and “felt a sudden and unusual vibration of the aircraft.” Various cabin crewmembers throughout the aircraft also reported on the interphone hearing a bang and feeling vibrations. In addition, a passenger report to the flight crew, relayed by the cabin crew, described seeing flames and sparks coming from the right outboard (No. 4) engine.