Ben Sandilands'
Plane Talking associates these incidents with Qantas' outsourcing its RB211 maintenance to Hong Kong:
The disconnection of Qantas management from operational realities persisted in the decision to outsource the maintenance of the Rolls-Royce RB211 engines used on most of its remaining 747 fleet to a facility in Hong Kong.
One of these engines failed, quite spectacularly according to eye-witness comments posted here, on QF1 on its departure from Bangkok for London on Friday morning. There has been a series of failures of RB211 engines on Qantas jets since the closure of its specialized engineering shop for these engines in Sydney.
Management did explain, quite logically at the time, that it sent the work offshore because the reduction in 747 fleet size made it uneconomic to perform the engine upkeep in Australia compared to the cost of using the Hong Kong facility.
But had management considered the technical reality, that Qantas worked its RB211s on its 747s harder and rather differently to any other user, and that these RR powered 747s are going to be in service until up to 2020, it might have chosen differently.
The Hong Kong move may well have cost it far more than it saved in a series of incidents that are harmful to the brand’s image and reputation...
Dual dangers hanging over Qantas, as we know it | Plane Talking