Sydney-bound Qantas jetliner returns to SIN

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2]

It will be repaired if I'm not mistaken. What a waste to write off an fairly new A380, no matter how ugly it looks!

[Daniel Tang 0]

Damaged a/c VH-OQA still in SIAEC hangar in SIN.

[flee 5]

Damaged Qantas A380 Will Return In March

 

Qantas says the Airbus A380 that was badly damaged following an uncontained engine failure in November 2010, VH-OQA, is finally due to return to service in March.

 

Repair work on the A380 “is progressing well,” a Qantas spokesman tells Aviation Week. Repairs began in May 2011 and are expected to cost AU$135 million ($139.75 million). In early 2011, Qantas said the aircraft would fly again by the end of that year. However, for the past six months, the airline has signaled that a return to service early this year was more likely.

 

VH-OQA was forced to make an emergency landing in Singapore due to an uncontained engine failure in one of its Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, with flying debris causing significant structural damage to the aircraft. This incident led Qantas to ground its A380 fleet while inspections were conducted. The engine failure was eventually traced to a Rolls-Royce manufacturing fault.

 

Despite early speculation that VH-OQA would be written off, the decision was made to repair it. The cost is covered by insurance. The repairs are being carried out at an SIA Engineering Co. (SIAEC) facility in Singapore. Most of the work is being done by a team of up to 40 Airbus employees, although staff from Qantas Engineering and SIAEC also are supporting the effort.

 

The aircraft required structural wing repairs and the full replacement of the other systems affected, including pneumatic, electrical and hydraulic systems. All of the original engines on VH-OQA have been removed and replaced with new engines supplied by Rolls-Royce.

 

According to Qantas, the repair work will be certified by Airbus, and the relevant airworthiness authorities are receiving regular briefings and are auditing the work. Airbus and Qantas will carry out flight testing.

 

While the repairs to VH-OQA are covered by insurance, Qantas last year negotiated an AU$95 million settlement from Rolls-Royce to compensate for the A380 fleet grounding.

 

Source

[Cornelis Boersma 0]

Great news for the nancy bird walton

[xtemujin 0]

Qantas A380 blast caused by defective pipe: probe

Posted: 19 January 2012 1410 hrs

 

SYDNEY: A mid-air engine blast on a Qantas A380 superjumbo that sent shards of metal raining down on an Indonesian island was triggered by a defective pipe, an update on the investigation said Thursday.

 

On November 4, 2010, flight QF32 out of Singapore experienced an engine failure en route to Sydney, with the explosion punching a hole in the wing of the aircraft and showering debris on Batam island.

 

No-one was injured, but an emergency landing in a trail of smoke dented Qantas's reputation for safety and prompted the carrier to ground all its Airbus A380s.

 

In an interim report, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said a "sequence of events" led to the engine failure.

 

It started with an oil fire caused by a manufacturing defect in an oil feed pipe.

 

"That defect resulted in fatigue cracking in the pipe, so that oil sprayed into an engine cavity where it ignited because of the high air temperature," the safety watchdog said.

 

The oil fire then weakened a turbine disc in the aircraft's second engine.

 

"As a result, the disc separated from its shaft, increased its rotation speed and broke into several parts," the investigation found.

 

Sections of the fractured disc and other engine components went on to penetrate the aircraft's left wing, along with other areas of the plane, causing major structural damage.

 

The plane's engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce said it was working closely with the ATSB to ensure all issues were effectively addressed.

 

"Each time an incident happens the aviation industry learns lessons," Rolls-Royce said in a statement.

 

"These are embedded in the rigorous safety procedures and standards of regulation which make flying an extraordinarily safe form of transport."

 

ATSB's final report is due to be released next year.

 

Qantas reached a settlement worth Aus$95 million (US$104 million at the time) with Rolls-Royce in June 2011 over the incident. The aircraft involved in the scare remains grounded in Singapore.

 

- AFP/cc

 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1177766/1/.html

Edited January 20, 2012 by xtemujin

[JuliusWong 0]

Guys, the ever graceful VH-OQA is now back in action: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Qantas/Airbus-A380-842/2092485/&sid=c20672c4d524466a3fe86a28483bb85b

[KC Sim 2]

On 14 April 2012 (Sat), I was surprised to see VH-OQA being pushed back from its parking stand at bay 104 ... it was powered up and eventually taxied out of sight. It eventually re-appeared and apparently taxied around Changi Airport for slightly more than an hour before returning to its original stand.

 

On 15 April 2012 (Sun), it departed on its first air test since the incident in November 2010 ... and contrary to my expectation of a gentle take-off ... it rotated early and climbed steeply into the crisp morning sky. It made an early right turn and went on a test flight that lasted all of four hours and three minutes.

 

It is really good to see Nancy-Bird Walton back in the air and these pictures were taken on 15 April. Now it leaves only for Qantas to perform at least one more test flight (perhaps an acceptance flight), give -OQA a good scrub-down and then bring it back to Sydney on the night of 21 April. It is expected to be received with much fanfare in SYD on the morning of 22 April.

 

 

 

 

KC

[flee 5]

Welcome back, Nancy-Bird Walton!

 

Very well spotted, KC!

[Mike P 0]

Good Job!

[JuliusWong 0]

Nice catch, KC!!

 

She definitely need a bath, had been AOG for so long....pretty dirty last time I saw her parked near Budget Terminal. She may be getting her interior spruced up as well...

.

[xtemujin 0]

Grounded Qantas A380 to fly home

By Yvonne Chan | Posted: 21 April 2012 1344 hrs

 

SINGAPORE: The Qantas Airbus A380 aircraft that experienced a mid-air engine explosion 18 months ago is finally returning home to Sydney from Singapore on Saturday.

 

The aircraft, named "Nancy Bird-Walton" in honour of Australia's first female commercial pilot, was handed over by Airbus engineers to the same pilots who were chartering the flight on 4 November 2010.

 

After 18 months, 78,000 man-hours and repairs costing US$144 million, the aircraft is finally ready to fly again.

 

All four Rolls Royce engines have been replaced.

 

The aircraft in total is worth over A$300 million.

 

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was also in town to oversee the ceremony at Singapore Changi Airport.

 

With its entire A380 aircraft fleet grounded for more than three weeks after the incident however, Qantas said business has not suffered.

 

Mr Joyce said: "Repairing the aircraft was definitely an economical and sensible decision, but of course, we wanted to make sure that it wasn't just a repair of the existing parts. We made sure that these were new parts that we put onto the aircraft and we insisted on it.

 

"The insurance company paid A$139 million for the repairs and Rolls Royce has compensated Qantas for the grounding of the aircraft for the period of time. And they've given us compensation of A$95 million in total.

 

"Qantas, financially, is whole and we believe this aircraft is as good as new. In the test flights that have taken place. it's performing better than a new aircraft would on delivery. It's a very young aircraft and as I said , it's the pride of the fleet, the flagship of the fleet and if we could economically repair it, we were always going to do that."

 

He also dismissed claims of any unease about taking the airplane's first flight back to Australia.

 

The long gestation period to double check safety measures may have also worked in Qantas' favour.

 

Siva Govindasamy, Asia Managing Editor of Flight Global, said: "Any major incident will have an impact on passenger confidence but it's really the airlines response that really matters.

 

"In this case, Qantas grounded the aircraft beyond what was even recommended at the time. Because they wanted to make sure that everything was safe. They only resumed A380 services after they were absolutely sure.

 

"Since that incident, the Qantas A380s have had very good load factors, have had very good demand, especially on the routes where they serve. I think that's testament to the fact that passengers will make a conscious decision to go back to an airline if they feel that it is safe."

 

The plane will make its first commercial flight on April 28 from Sydney to Hong Kong.

 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1196623/1/.html

[BC Tam 2]

..... we wanted to make sure that it wasn't just a repair of the existing parts. We made sure that these were new parts that we put onto the aircraft and we insisted on it.

So they fitted in a new wing ?

[Suzanne Goh 0]

For an Airline like QF - something told me there was no way they were going to write off that airframe considering they pride themselves in never having ever W.F.U a jet. Remember OJH?

 

Glad to see her back in the air though - I've been watching her a long time sitting on the ground all forlorn.

[xtemujin 0]

Repaired Qantas A380 arrives in Sydney

Jordan Chong

April 22, 2012 - 12:24PM

 

Nancy Bird-Walton is home again.

 

Some 535 days after a mid-air engine explosion over Indonesia, the pride of the Qantas fleet - the plane that chief executive Alan Joyce calls the Flying Kangaroo's flagship - touched down at Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport at 9.18am (AEST) on Sunday.

 

The Qantas Airbus A380, named after the pioneering Australian aviatrix, has spent the past 16 months in Singapore undergoing repairs following the explosion on November 4, 2010, that investigators later found was caused by a faulty oil pipe.

 

The repairs, which cost $139 million, involved about 100,000 man hours and the replacement of all four engines. Rigorous flight testing was completed in early April and the plane left Singapore on Saturday night (Singapore time).

 

Joining Mr Joyce on the flight to Sydney were pilots Captain Richard de Crespigny and Captain Dave Evans, as well as 16 of the 22 cabin crew from QF32 on November 4, 2010.

 

There were cheers and tears on board as the plane landed in a foggy Sydney on Sunday morning (AEST) and passed through a water cannon salute on its way to the arrival gate.

 

Mr Joyce said it was a special moment to have the Nancy Bird-Walton, registration number VH-OQA, back in Australia, given the aircraft was named after such an important figure in this country's aviation history.

 

It was also the first double-decker superjumbo to join the Qantas fleet, in September 2008.

 

"It's very emotional," Mr Joyce told AAP as the plane began its descent. "It shouldn't be - it is only an aircraft, as somebody said to me - but I think it is more than an aircraft. It's our reputation, our history.

 

"Anybody that knew Nancy Bird-Walton knew what an amazing aviation legend she was.

 

"She was there for the naming of the aircraft, so for us I suppose it was very emotional getting this fixed, getting Qantas's flagship back in the air."

 

The Nancy Bird-Walton is scheduled to re-enter service on April 28, as QF127 to Hong Kong, and bring Qantas's A380 fleet to 12.

 

*The reporter travelled to Singapore courtesy of Qantas Airways.

 

© 2012 AAP

 

 

http://news.smh.com....0422-1xenp.html

Edited April 22, 2012 by xtemujin

[flee 5]

The Qantas Airways Airbus A380 that had a mid-air uncontained engine failure after take-off from Singapore in November 2010 has finally returned to Australia.

 

The aircraft, which has the registration VH-OQA, took off from Singapore's Changi airport on the evening of 21 April and landed in Sydney on the morning of 22 April. It used the same QF32 flight number as the original flight, although this will now be retired. Passengers included Australian media, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and Richard de Crespigny, who was the captain of the original flight. "I have absolute confidence in this aircraft," says de Crespigny.

 

It will return to active service on 28 April on the Sydney-Hong Kong route.

 

"She's running a little late, by about 18 months," Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said before the flight to Sydney. "But looking at the repairs, it has been worth it. She is almost brand new."

 

Shortly after take-off on 4 November 2010, the aircraft's No 2 engine had an uncontained failure over the Indonesian island of Batam, but the pilots managed to fly the aircraft back to Singapore safely.

 

Australian investigators have finished collecting data for an investigation into the uncontained failure of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine. The data is being analysed and a final report is expected in the third quarter of 2012.

 

So far, the investigations identified a defect in an oil feed tube as the cause behind an oil fire, which led to the engine failure. The defect caused a section of the oil tube to thin out and crack, leading to an internal engine oil fire that weakened the intermediate pressure turbine disc. This was then separated from the turbine shaft, puncturing the engine case and wing structure.

 

Repairs took almost 18 months to complete, and used almost 40,000t of tooling and parts. The entire tab of A$139 million ($144 million) was picked up by insurance companies. Another A$95 million came from Rolls-Royce, which supplied the Trent 900 engines, as compensation.

 

"The aircraft, with everything that we have put into it such as the in-flight entertainment, is worth A$300 million. So repairing the aircraft, instead of writing it off, was definitely the right decision for us," says Joyce.

 

Almost 70,000 man hours went into the repairs, which were conducted at the SIA Engineering A380 hangar in Singapore. Most of this focused on damage to the left wing between ribs six and 13, primarily on the forward spar and upper and lower wing sections.

 

"At the start of the project, we had to get as much information as possible. There was a lot of pressure to get the repairs going as soon as we could. But we made a conscious decision to relax and examine this as closely as possible and make the right decisions," says Alan Milne, head of the Qantas integrated operations centre.

 

Much of the work entailed fixing a custom made patch to the upper wing skin, which was pierced by debris from the No 2 engine. Part of the front spar and lower wing skin was also replaced. Inside the wing, various components were replaced including harnesses, fairings, flaps, fuel pipes, and various other hydraulic and electrical systems. All four engines were also replaced.

 

All of this added almost 200kg to the aircraft's weight, but Airbus and Qantas officials say that this will have negligible impact on the aircraft's performance.

 

After the repairs, the aircraft was put through a test schedule usually reserved for brand new aircraft. This included a four-hour long test flight, in which Qantas and Airbus pilots took the aircraft to 43,000ft. There was also a second test flight to test cabin equipment.

 

"The aircraft is now as good as new," says Derek Blackham, Airbus director of customer support and services. "That's what we planned from the start of this project and that's what we've got."

 

Source: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/qantas-a380-in-qf32-incident-returns-to-sydney-370972/

[flee 5]

Airbus and Qantas overcame technical and logistical challenges in A380 repairs

 

Qantas Airways and Airbus engineers faced both technical and logistical challenges in restoring its first A380 back to virtually brand-new condition after the aircraft's uncontained engine failure in November 2010.

 

The aircraft, which has the registration VH-OQA, suffered the mid-air failure after take-off from Singapore. Repairs were completed almost 18 months after the incident, and the aircraft returned to Sydney on 22 April.

 

"The repair-rebuild was unique in terms of the quantity and the size, but not the philosophies. Overall the repair principles used throughout are based on standard practices as performed regularly by the experienced Airbus teams, with the main differences here being related to the larger scale," says Airbus.

 

"The challenges and achievements were not just technical but logistical, especially in having to move such large parts around the world, out of normal sequence. These had to be packed, shipped out and reassembled in Singapore in somebody else's hangar."

 

Airbus says that it undertook a damage assessment as soon as it was granted access by the authorities. This first stage took six weeks, during which a decision was made that the aircraft would be repaired instead of being written off, says Qantas integrated operations centre head Alan Milne.

 

It was then determined that the aircraft could not be temporarily repaired and returned to a home base or maintenance centre due to the complexity of the project, and because the repair and testing required would have taken just as long as the complete rebuilding work.

 

Airbus provided a repair proposal in February 2011, and it signed a contract with Qantas in May 2011 that led to the second phase of the project when the A380 had to be stress-jacked. A separate contract was signed with SIA Engineering for hangar access - initially for the bespoke 'Number 6' A380 hangar at Changi airport for the stress-jacking phase, and subsequently the Number 1 Boeing 747 hangar for third phase of the project for completion activities, which did not require the aircraft to be stress-jacked.

 

"We had to get the aircraft back in factory condition," says Airbus director of customer support and services Derek Blackham. "The key area of Phase 2 was when the aircraft was stress-jacked, it had to be at a zero-g state so that there is no undue stress during the repairs."

 

Airbus loaded the dedicated stress-jacking equipment into 19 lorries and began to ship them to Singapore before the agreement. The aircraft was rolled into hangar 6 on 6 July 2011 and was rolled out on 22 October - a day before the scheduled roll-out date and six months after the agreement was signed. Work then continued either outside on the apron or in the Number 1 hangar. Around 70,000 production man-hours were used for the repair, says Airbus.

 

The repairs entailed replacing the A380's damaged inboard left-hand Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine and pylon. All damaged internal stringers and equipment were repaired or replaced, and all damaged flaps and fairings were replaced.

 

The fuselage's glare material and metal panels were repaired by blending where impact had occurred, and the electrical wiring system for the port wing was completely replaced. A section of the top skin was removed and a specific repair plate machined and installed.

 

"For this, Airbus performed [three-dimensional] laser-scanning so that the upper wing geometry was maintained throughout the repair, and in accordance with the A380's 3D digital design database. The result is a totally flush surface for the wing airflow," says the airfamer.

 

A specific section of the front spar was newly manufactured, customised and machined to fit the top skin repair, replacing the damaged section. Airbus says that the A380's spar design allowed the entire section of damaged spar to be removed by simply unfastening it at the natural production joints and then re-fastening the new replacement section into position.

 

For the lower skin panel repairs, Airbus says that external butt-straps on the lower skin of rib 6 and rib 13 are the only visible evidence of the repair. The butt straps are the joint external "doubler", a reinforcement where the two plates join. The profile is blended for a smooth aerodynamic surface to the airflow, says Airbus.

 

The total weight added by the repairs was 94kg, far less than the 250kg allowed for in the original agreement between Qantas and Airbus.

 

"This was achieved due to 'as-new' replacement parts being used wherever possible. This very small additional weight impact was a considerable achievement," says Airbus. "The aircraft's overall performance - range and efficiency - is expected to be unaffected."

 

After the repairs, Airbus and Qantas crew conducted a comprehensive ground and flight test of the aircraft. The standards would not be less than specified in the Airbus production aircraft test manual, they said. The tests included static checks, engine runs, taxi check and rejected take-off, and a technical flight. Qantas also performed a performance measurement flight in Sydney with the support of Airbus flight test engineers.

 

The entire tab of A$139 million ($144 million) was picked up by insurance companies. Another A$95 million came from Rolls-Royce, which supplied the Trent 900 engines, as compensation.

 

The repair was audited by Airbus, Qantas, Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority, and Organisme pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile throughout the process. There were about eight audits in total, with no significant findings.

 

After a handover ceremony, the aircraft took off from Singapore's Changi airport on 21 April as flight QF32 - the same number it used when the incident happened. It landed in landed in Sydney on 22 April, and will return to active service on 28 April on the Sydney-Hong Kong route.

 

"She's running a little late, by about 18 months," Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said before the flight to Sydney. "But looking at the repairs, it has been worth it. She is almost brand new."

 

Source: http://www.flightglo...repairs-371038/

Edited April 24, 2012 by flee