Nov. 9, 2010, London, U.K. - Rolls-Royce has made progress in understanding the cause of the engine failure on the Trent 900 powered A380 Qantas flight QF32 on 4 November 2010. It is now clear this incident is specific to the Trent 900 engine.
As a result, a series of checks and inspections has been agreed with Airbus, with
operators of the Trent 900 powered A380 and with the airworthiness authorities. These
are being progressively completed which is allowing a resumption of operation of aircraft
in full compliance with all safety standards. We are working in close cooperation with
Airbus, our customers and the authorities, and as always safety remains our highest
priority.
We can be certain that the separate Trent 1000 event which occurred in August 2010 on a
test bed in Derby is unconnected. This incident happened during a development
programme with an engine operating outside normal parameters. We understand the
cause and a solution has been implemented.
The Trent 900 incident is the first of its kind to occur on a large civil Rolls-Royce engine
since 1994. Since then Rolls-Royce has accumulated 142 million hours of flight on Trent
and RB211 engines.
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