Qantas plane forced to land after Rolls-Royce engine trouble

Flight carrying 308 passengers to London returns to Bangkok after increased vibration and high temperatures in engine A Qantas flight to London was forced to return to Bangkok after one of its engines began experiencing trouble shortly after takeoff, the airline said. The Australian carrier said there was “an increase in vibration and high temperatures” in one of the plane’s four engines on Friday. The pilots shut the engine down and landed the Boeing 747-400, which was carrying 308 passengers, soon after. “We believe the cause is similar to events that other airlines are experiencing and is subject to an increased monitoring programme from the manufacturer Rolls-Royce,” the airline said in a statement. A Qantas spokesman declined to specify which airlines had faced similar problems with the engines. Rolls-Royce came under increased scrutiny after one of its Trent 900 engines on a Qantas A380 disintegrated after takeoff from Singapore in November. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s interim report on the A380 incident said a manufacturing defect in an oil pipe deep within one of the engines led to an oil leak, which sparked a fire. The fire caused one of the engine’s giant turbine discs to disintegrate, sending pieces of it shooting through the plane’s wing. On Monday, a Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine caught fire on a Cathay Pacific flight bound for Jakarta, Indonesia, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Singapore. Cathay Pacific and Rolls-Royce are investigating the incident. Qantas’s Boeing 747 aircraft use Rolls-Royce RB211 engines. Rolls-Royce Airline industry Thailand Australia guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 20, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.