Air France A380 lost engine

[martinmsjogren]

Last night an Air France Airbus A380 from Abidjan to Paris lost an engine and had to turn around, and landed safely in Abidjan. See flightaware

Im just wondering why this isnt mentioned in news hardly anywhere. Is it less of a big deal when an A380 loses an engine than what Id think?

It is top news on Ivory Coast's main news site (abidjan net) but I cant see it anywhere else.

[ASRAAMTOO]

Do you mean “lost” as in it fell off and is missing, or do you mean it was shut down, and the aircraft flew safely on the three remaining engines.

The first is clearly cause for concern, the second rates about as much news coverage as it seems to be getting

[VH DSJ]

Geesh, I hope they find the lost engine. These things aren't cheap!

[martinmsjogren]

I dont know. The news article I found just said "lost" without specifying.

[ATC Watcher]

If it fell in the Suburbs of Abidjan the chances of finding it back is remote, probably already dismantled and parts used to make something else..:)

[Capn Bloggs]

3 4 the long haul! "Press on, Monsieur!"

[Joe_K]

Do you mean “lost” as in it fell off and is missing, or do you mean it was shut down, and the aircraft flew safely on the three remaining engines.

Randomly clicking the first link on Google about this yields:
"Un porte-parole d'Air France à Paris joint par l'AFP a précisé que "Techniquement , c'est ce qu'on appelle un pompage réacteur. C'est une avarie moteur qui est connue" '...) "Ca peut être lié à l'ingestion d'un oiseau par un réacteur au décollage"."
Which loosely translates as "it was an engine surge" and "could have been to do with ingestion of a bird".
Would appear to be a non-event and not news worthy.

[jurassicjockey]

Beware the confusion over a "lost" engine. The ambiguity didn't help American 191 in Chicago when the engine physically separated from the airframe on departure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_191

[Super VC-10]

It's OK, after a short search they found it attached to a wing.

[guadaMB]

Attached to a wing of an LH A-380... :hmm:

[Webby737]

Some pilots prefer to land in Shiraz, others prefer Abidjan to CDG/BCN/TLS - more often than not they are not paid enough to think about pax convenience and aircraft recovery cost.
Abidjan would not be a problem.
Air France have a maintenance line station there and there's plenty of reasonable hotels nearby for the pax.
Seems like a perfectly reasonable decision to me.

[CargoOne]

Abidjan would not be a problem.
Air France have a maintenance line station there and there's plenty of reasonable hotels nearby for the pax.
Seems like a perfectly reasonable decision to me.

Line station is fine but it has a limited value if you have to change the engine on A380. I do not remember what maindeck capacity serves Abidjan today but I suspect the engine will have to end up on expensive charter flight along with AOG team, and passengers in hotels while pushing to BCN/TLS, let alone CDG will feature much less disruption and cost associated. So if that was a clearly isolated problem with one engine, I keep my opinion whether this was a reasonable decision after all.

[Romeo E.T.]

from twitter

[img] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1Txk2nX4AACSwX.jpg

[dixi188]

Can you do a three engine ferry flight with an A380?

[Groundloop]

Yes. The one that had the major engine failure (ie lost the fan in flight over Greenland) and diverted to Goose Bay had a non-operating engine attached and did a 3-engine ferry flight pack to Paris.

[Herod]

Can you do a three engine ferry flight with an A380?

Unless the rules have changed since my day, yes. But that only gets the aircraft back. Ferry would be without passengers.

[Lake1952]

It will be a three engine ferry or else fire up the Antonov!

[TOGA Tap]

That was heavy damage with the potential to get even worse with time. Good decision Captain!

[golfyankeesierra]

Those African bird strikes are a complete different ball game (not joking). Sully’s geese are pigeons compared to some of those.

[pilotguy1222]

Do you mean “lost” as in it fell off and is missing, or do you mean it was shut down, and the aircraft flew safely on the three remaining engines.

The first is clearly cause for concern, the second rates about as much news coverage as it seems to be getting
based on the pictures, lost is much more accurate description.

[oversteer]

Yes. The one that had the major engine failure (ie lost the fan in flight over Greenland) and diverted to Goose Bay had a non-operating engine attached and did a 3-engine ferry flight pack to Paris.

it flew on four engines in the end
https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/938450755845009408?s=21
(FR24 quoting AF - seems unlikely to be at 37000ft and 530kts on three?)

[Tom Sawyer]

Can you do a three engine ferry flight with an A380?


Yes. A Middle Eastern airline did a 3 engine ferry flight SYD to homebase last month. Flight number was 9009, but you will have to figure out the operator.

[DaveReidUK]

Yes. A Middle Eastern airline did a 3 engine ferry flight SYD to homebase last month. Flight number was 9009, but you will have to figure out the operator.

Routed back to Abu Dhabi via Singapore after 5 days grounded at SYD.

Oops. :\

[megan]

Sounds like something similar to the Sioux City United Airlines Flight 232. Final report.

https://www.bea.aero/uploads/tx_elydbrapports/BEA2017-0568.en.pdf

[lomapaseo]

I'm not willing to accept the final conclusions in this report.

Of course the investigation was thorough and the conclusions matched the available evidence up to the point of association with a unique material characteristic not previously identified in fan hub service.

What is needed is a more thorough development of the estimated time and stresses both centrifugal and vibratory modes present in this engines hub in its operating cycle. To wit the operating stresses in this engine may have been abnormally affected during one or more cycles

[atakacs]

Are we speaking of the "right" incident ? This thread started about a flight out of Abidjan (Ivory coast) !

[megan]

You're correct atakacs, too quick on the draw I'm afraid, my apologies, should be here.

https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/623116-a380-engine-piece-found-groenland-after-9-months-4.html?highlight=a380+greenland

[DaveReidUK]

Re the OP's incident, an IFSD that doesn't cause any collateral damage (as appears to be the case here) doesn't usually warrant an AIB investigation.

Unless the aircraft continues for another 5,000 miles to its destination on 3 engines. :O