A380 engine piece found in Groenland after 9 months
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A380 engine piece found in Groenland after 21 months
A 150 kg piece of the A380 engine 4 that experienced an uncontained engine failure over Groenland on 2017-09-30 was recovered under 4m of ice.
flightglobal's article
BEA's technical report (not yet updated)
flightglobal's article
BEA's technical report (not yet updated)
Last edited by fgrieu; 2nd Jul 2019 at 15:28. Reason: Fix math in the title
Now that's really impressive.
I really wonder if it is worth the effort and expense. Is the BEA footing the bill? Sure it would be interesting to understand the circumstances of the failure but I was not expecting so much energy into it.
I really wonder if it is worth the effort and expense. Is the BEA footing the bill? Sure it would be interesting to understand the circumstances of the failure but I was not expecting so much energy into it.
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Politics...
EDIT: also striking when reading the report is how much use was made by BEA of Airbus resources and subsidiaries. Satellite imagery, ballistic calculations, even the plane carrying the synthetic aperture radar happened to be operated by an Airbus subsidiary.
Last edited by Joe_K; 2nd Jul 2019 at 13:03.
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The story popped up on my newsfeed late yesterday, so I somehow thought it had already been linked on PPRuNe: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...and-sn-459399/
BEA had recently disclosed that it was exploring various high-tech methods, including synthetic-aperture radar fitted to a Dassault Falcon 20 jet, in a bid to locate the parts.
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Full story here (add https) eng.geus.dk/about/news/news-archive/2019/jul/missing-airplane-engine-part-found-by-geus-led-expeditions
Onera found magnetic anomalies from flights above the icepack, then danish picked it up.
I suppose the bill will be shared between GE/BEA/Airbus.
Onera found magnetic anomalies from flights above the icepack, then danish picked it up.
I suppose the bill will be shared between GE/BEA/Airbus.
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Up to 12 meter per year, and melting.
Here in Norway we at times have 12 meters of annual snow fall measured on Svartisen and Ålfotbreen glaciers.
All but a few are shrinking , mind you.
Soooo!
Airbus and Engine supplier are using to much cash on finding fault.
Hmmm.
What a tragedy!!
All but a few are shrinking , mind you.
Soooo!
Airbus and Engine supplier are using to much cash on finding fault.
Hmmm.
What a tragedy!!
Last edited by BluSdUp; 2nd Jul 2019 at 15:40. Reason: last sentance
For one thing, the track of AF66 was known. the engine let go over land, and the parts were found under a few metres of snow, not several miles down in the ocean.
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So, in short, the finding of the fan disk of the A380 engine was well worth the effort and may lead to a clear understanding of the cause of the uncontained engine failure.
Cheers,
Grog
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Originally Posted by atakacs
Still I'm baffled by the scope of the effort.
For design purposes, we assumed the probability of an uncontained engine failure (typically a rotor burst) at 10-8/hr, the current regulatory guidance requires a "one in twenty" analysis for rotor bursts - meaning the analysis needs to show that the probability of a rotor burst resulting in a catastrophic accident should be 5% or less.
However the engine company designs the rotors - especially the fan disc - to never fail. So, just like Sioux City, it's critically important to find out why it did fail so they can take appropriate action to prevent a future event.
BTW, IIRC, they traced the Sioux City fan disc failure to a flaw in the source material used to make the disc. There were nine other fan discs made from that same batch of material, which were promptly removed from service.