Lets get down to tin tacks.
How long has Rolls Royce known about the problem with the IP bearing/coupling arrangement?
My guess (and it is a guess) is at least Six months, AD's usually don't just happen overnight.
Before they issued that AD, they will have seen this condition on one engine, then probably pulled and inspected others with higher times if possible, and found the condition again, put Two and Two together and presto!
Now we come to Qantas.....
Does Qantas have an RR trent 900 specialist in house? Does he watch over every single engine, graphing the vibrations, graphing the SOAP, T's and P's? Poring over every single communication with every other airline running the same engine? Asking RR hard questions?
If Qantas does have this person, were they aware of the AD? Was QF planning additional inspections of its own volition?
...or was the entire question of engine safety and performance management outsourced?
These are the questions CASA should be asking; who knew what and when did they know it, and what did they do about it? What conclusions can be drawn about the safety management of QF's engines?
I'm not holding my breath.
QF is heading for third world status where the companies have no technical brains and rely on what they are told by the manufacturers.
P.S. Well said ALEA Fed. Sec. We are heading back to the technical capability we had prior to WWII - totally dependent on overseas corporations, and it will bite us in the arse again just as it did before.