QF Air Turnback - QE Engineering
 

I find this one interesting. Qantas Engineering going 'above' the manufactures maintenance recommendations in what I presume was Qantas being 'proactive' and as a result, created a problem that led to an engine mishap. Worse part - Qantas did not inform GE of their practices which seems very odd to me i.e. to confirm if these practices would introduce new issues...

News: Engine surge and vibrations

Caveat - I have no specific knowledge of the referenced matter.

Generally, an operator will run an NTO (No Technical Objection) request by the OEM before implementing a local protocol. If the OEM has a concern, that should be identified back to the operator. If not, the OEM generally will issue an NTO relating to the request.

It may be that the OEM didn't have all the story and made an inadequate call or that the operator didn't go through the usual processes - I would be surprised if that were the case for QF.

That does seem odd.

QF Flight Operations consults with Boeing constantly.

Perhaps the "right people" in QF Engineering got "right sized" during the GFC.

It was an A330 involved , wasn’t it ?

Say no more then!

Ah, I thought we were talking about engines, not boeing v airbus? I could be wrong, stood down at the moment, not being paid to think!

Yes it was an A330 airframe, but the issue was the US made engine, as opposed to B787's and their British made engine issues

From the report - " They sought clarification from the engine manufacturer prior to the occurrence, regarding the suitability of individual replacement, but reported they had not received a response."

I've finally read the whole report.

From the ATSB News article in Post #1:

No, it didn't!

What a shocking article.

The investigation found that the operator's proactive replacement of worn bushings had NOTHING to do with the engine incident, as no bushings on that engine had been replaced.

In fact, the ATSB have no idea what caused the incident, nor do they have any idea what caused an identical incident the previous year.

The ATSB went on to criticise the operator for replacing worn bushings, on the grounds that if worn bushings were replaced, the operator would never know when they had reached the 50% threshold of worn bushings required for replacement of a complete set.

Unless, of course, the operator kept a record of bushing replacements... :rolleyes: