19:05, Nov 5 2010

A Qantas Boeing 747 with 431 people on board has landed safely in Singapore after an engine caught fire minutes after it took off from the city-state, the airline said.

The problem arose just a day after a Qantas Airbus A380 superjumbo jet made an emergency landing at the same airport due to an engine blow-out.

"There was a loud bang and a jet of fire from the back of the engine," said Andrew Jenkins, a 43-year-old Australian banker.

Jenkins, who was sitting at the back of the plane, said he could see the engine clearly. The blast happened "one or two minutes" into the flight when the plane had climbed about 2,000ft, according to Jenkins.

"We all realised that it was clear that there was a problem," he said. "When we realised that everything was under control, everyone was very calm."

The captain stabilised the plane and came on the public address system to announce that he was returning to Singapore, Jenkins said.


Qantas said in a statement later that flight QF6 from Singapore to Sydney had an issue with its number 1 engine. It said the captain of the jumbo jet sought priority clearance to return to Singapore as a precaution. There were 412 passengers, three flight crew and 16 cabin crew.


After the aircraft returned to Singapore, the passengers were taken in a bus to a hotel for an overnight stay. They are expected to leave on Saturday.


Flight QF6 is a Boeing 747-400, which is fitted with four Rolls-Royce RB211-524G-T engines. The daily flight operates between Frankfurt and Sydney with a stopover in Singapore.


After the Airbus A380 emergency landing on Thursday, Qantas grounded its fleet of A380s and other airlines made checks of their planes which have the same Rolls-Royce engine. The A380 shed debris from the busted engine onto the thickly populated Indonesian island of Batam.


http://iccheshireonline.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0300nationalnews/tm_headline=qa...

Qantas the flaming Kangaroo

Singapore want to buy our ASX and Qantas.

Two in a row, could be coincidence?? Could be a technical problem, but, this has a bit of an odd feel about it?

aussiefree2ride wrote on Nov 6^th, 2010 at 7:30pm:



It's a worry, thats for sure.

I had a strange feeling about it yesterday, before the second plane caught fire.

What's interesting is that Qantas have been quick to pinpoint mechanical concerns, this and deny explosions, despite witnesses both from the cabin and on the ground reporting otherwise.

Did anyone else hear how two engines had failed on the Airbus A380 super-jumbo?  They made a big deal of the planes engine catching fire, but it's my understanding that the engine next to it on the same side had either began to fail, before the other one caught fire.

Meaning, they were lucky to get back alive, that plane was by all accounts doomed. 2 engine failures on the same side = little chance of survival.

Like with Gillard wanting to remove the union Jack from our flag, perhaps she thought  Asian countries would like us more if we removed the Kangaroo from our plane also?

Sorry, bad Joke I know..

Anyway have a great night, I have to hit the books.

Cheers.

HEROIC pilot Richard de Crespigny has been caught in a second Qantas emergency - a day after he saved 466 lives by safely landing his stricken jet.

Captain de Crespigny was a passenger aboard flight QF6 on Friday night when flames burst from an engine shortly after takeoff from Singapore's Changi airport, forcing the Boeing 747-400 jumbo to turn back.

All 412 shaken passengers and crew were safely offloaded, including 20 crew members who had already survived the earlier Qantas drama, along with Captain de Crespigny.

Captain de Crespigny was hailed a hero on Thursday after an engine exploded on the Qantas Airbus A-380 jet he was piloting as QF32 shortly after takeoff from the same airport, bound for Sydney. He dumped fuel, reassured passengers and safely executed an emergency landing.

Captain de Crespigny and 19 other crew were aboard QF6, attempting to return home to their families.


Anxious wife Coral de Crespigny had no idea of the second drama until her husband rang her on Friday night and announced calmly: "There's been a delay, I've landed again and I'm going back to the hotel."

Mrs de Crespigny said she had initially been unconcerned by the QF32 drama, but on reflection had begun to worry about her husband's welfare. "The first time I was OK, because I got told by Qantas that everything was alright, so by the time I knew [about it], the danger was over - I already knew he was safe," she said.

"The second time was similar, but I thought 'Gosh, that's a worry'. I'm still looking at the situation going: Holy cow, how did he get out of that?' "

The father of one cabin attendant, who was flying home to Sydney on QF6 as a passenger, said his daughter was "definitely frightened after the first one, but her insecurities were peaking after it happened again".

She was considering flying home with another carrier, he said.

Qantas was scrambling to downplay the dramas, and has sent another plane to Singapore to collect the passengers, who are due to arrive in Sydney today.

Chief executive Alan Joyce denied any link between the two engine failures - although both are Rolls-Royce engines. He has already sought to blame Rolls-Royce for the Airbus engine failure, but said Qantas was "very comfortable with the engines in the 747 as we've had 30 years' dealing with them and experienced in-flight shutdowns before."

Investigations by the airline into its entire fleet of A380 are continuing, and Mr Joyce said they could be back in the air "within days".

"This is an engine issue, and the engines were maintained by Rolls-Royce since being installed," Mr Joyce said. "We believe this is most likely some kind of material failure or a design issue. We don't believe this is related to maintenance in any way."

Staff, passengers and unions have united to attack Mr Joyce, accusing him of undermining Qantas' excellent safety record by cutting costs with outsourced labour and moving some maintenance operations offshore.

Industrial actions over pay, conditions and safety are looming, with the Transport Workers' Union deeply concerned over management's determination to employ staff through secondary "labour hire" companies, rather than as direct Qantas employees.

"It's about time Qantas listened to warning signs," Steve Purvinas, the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association's federal secretary, said.

Qantas has never suffered a fatal air incident, although there have been many near misses.

Mrs de Crespigny said her husband "Rich" was "so cool, calm and collected, and he's just so good at what he does, he's a really impressive person".

"You'd think he'd have dealt with that sort of thing on a simulator and he'd just know what to do," she said.

"But you read about what actually happened, and I find myself sitting there saying to myself: 'My God, he really is a hero.' What he had to deal with to keep 400 people alive is just extraordinary."



http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/top-stories/hero-pilot-in-second-mid-air-scare/s...