Thank you for your very thoughtful post. Indeed, there are some of us that are trying to understand what caused the engine failure on the Qantas Airbus A-380 in the interest of passenger safety. Unlike some of the posters that imply that only the stockholders, investors, regulators and potential customers be satisfied, I believe the users, the paying passengers besides the flight crews also need to be completely assured of the safety after a near catastrophic event, such as this one, that occurred. It has nothing to do with how far we may be removed from current technology as some have suggested but the honesty in dealing with what has taken place and assurances that it is not going to happen again. The problem is not with the aircraft, in fact, it saved the day. The problem is with the lack of assurance from the engine manufacturer that the problem has really been completely solved going forward. As I see it, I have yet to see any believable assurances, especially with remarks such as this from the very top of the organization:
Sir John Rose spoke publicly for the first time about the problems with its Trent 900 engine used on the Airbus A380, parts of which exploded last November on a Qantas flight from Singapore to Sydney.
The company said that such “uncontained” engine failures occur roughly once a year in the global civil aviation sector. Rolls-Royce last suffered such an engine fault in 1994.
Now we know this not true, there have been at least two, one occurring on August 30, 2010, out of San Francisco, a Trent 700 engine, also on a Qantas aircraft.
Re-arranging the deck chairs on the fore-deck, while the band plays on in the main lounge to comfort the stockholders, is not what this is about.
There is enough credible information on both sides of the pond to suggest that this event was not only predictable to occur at some time, but also preventable. It is with this in mind that we explore what happened and attempt to assemble some thoughts, ideas and our experiences as to the sequence of events leading to the failure and postulating what may need to be done to keep a replay from occurring.
It is nice that some of us are willing to share in this forum, while others, perhaps with even more knowledge, are willing to play the "I know more than you do, but I am not saying" role.
Thanks again,
