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Qantas A380 springs oil leak
- Yet another Qantas A380 ended its flight from Singapore to London on three engines after an oil leak forced the pilots the reduce the fourth engine to idle.
This was the second oil problem on an A380 in less than two weeks and it appears that the leaks may be the result of a design flaw with the Roll-Royce Trent 900 that allows a fitting to loosen when subjected to vibration.
The latest problem, which happened as Qantas Flight 31 neared Ashgabat in Turkmenistan on February 24, is similar to a partial power loss on a different Qantas A380 near New Delhi on February 15 when an engine also had to be reduce to idle and a report from the Australian Safety Bureau said that it had found the fitting of the external high pressure-intermediate pressure oil line "had less than the required torque".
In the latest incident, the crew detected a reduction in oil in the No3 engine and were forced to gradually reduce its thrust.
The airline has stated that the incident had not affected the safety of the flight and was unrelated to the manufacturing flaw that caused a Trent 900 engine to explode in November and severely damage an A380 operating as QF32. Theat fault had b een traced to an internal oil line.
"The external oil line had been fitted in line with Rolls-Royce requirements, after a mandated boroscope inspection. This issue has been experienced previously, including by another Trent 900 operator, and it has been raised with Rolls-Royce," a Qantas spokesperson has said.
The incidents are being investigated by the ATSB and come as Qantas and Rolls-Royce are still negotiating on compensation for last year's catastrophic engine failure, which saw the national carrier temporarily ground its entire A380 fleet.
Qantas has estimated the full-year cost of the incident at $80 million. This does not include the $100m it will cost to fix the plane, which is covered by insurance, or damage to the airline's brand.
