Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

admiralcloudberg.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 122 posts

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#11

Post by tomhow »

Alien1Being wrote: post #5

Qantas is a troubled airline. Once a Qantas aircraft technician even told me that Singapore Airlines have a far superior maintenance schedule for their aircraft. This person claims that he tells his family to avoid flying on Qantas ( but flies on it himself since he gets free flights) These days Han airlines ( SIA, Cathay,China Eastern) and Middle Eastern airlines (Emirates,Qatar) are far better than Western Airlines…

Please don’t post off-topic hearsay like this here. This article isn’t about maintenance, it’s about a manufacturing fault and the incredible work by the pilots to avert a colossal aviation disaster. Qantas continues to have an unblemished record of safety. Running airlines cost-effectively is a continually growing challenge. There is always a place for scrutiny of airlines’ maintenance and safety practices, but introducing it out of context and based entirely on an unverifiable comment from an unidentified individual is not a helpful contribution to this discussion.

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#13

Post by chasil »

u1hcw9nx wrote: post #3

Turbine disk failure is one thing that can down a plane, and you can only reduce the probability so much. Fan blades and turbine blades can be contained by containment cases if they break off, but turbine disks can't. When a disk breaks, it's an uncontained engine failure. A 20 kg disk fragment flying at Mach 1 goes through everything. Airframes are have a 30-degree fragment spread cone around every disk stage. Airfr…

I admit that I glossed over the section on the machining of the oil pipe, but the facility appears to bear most of the blame.

These were pulled and scrapped from the whole A380 fleet.

"Investigators also criticized the culture within the Hucknall facility that manufactured the HP/IP bearing hubs, identifying signs of complacency and widespread procedural non-compliance. A paperwork review showed that the required signatures were missing from 131 out of 138 retrospective concessions issued between 2009 and 2011, and a large number of minor non-conformances had not been properly handled through the normal chain of command."

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#14

Post by realo »

Catastrophic failure? Check

Plane landed without casualties? Check

Plane design so good it helped avoid casualties? Check

Hum... Ah! Not an american Boeing but a french Airbus. Of course.

The article mentions this story should make everyone a little less afraid of flying.

Sure, as long as its not on a Boeing plane.

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#15

Post by seemaze »

This remarkable event, along with the an accessible history of the evolution of precision manufacturing is covered in Simon Winchester's excellent book The Perfectionists[0]. The audiobook is narrated by the author, which is quite enjoyable as well.

[0]https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-perfectionists-si...

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#17

Post by ginko »

Alien1Being wrote: post #5

Qantas is a troubled airline. Once a Qantas aircraft technician even told me that Singapore Airlines have a far superior maintenance schedule for their aircraft. This person claims that he tells his family to avoid flying on Qantas ( but flies on it himself since he gets free flights) These days Han airlines ( SIA, Cathay,China Eastern) and Middle Eastern airlines (Emirates,Qatar) are far better than Western Airlines…

Ah yeah, China Eastern..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Eastern_Airlines_Flight_...

Meanwhile Lufthansa had their last fatal crash in 1993. For British it was in 1976.

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#18

Post by adaml_623 »

"Even the airplane itself ultimately survived: after a marathon repair that lasted 535 days and cost $139 million, the A380 Nancy-Bird Walton triumphantly returned to the skies in 2012."

This quote amazes me. My understanding is that Airbus, Qantas, and probably Rolls Royce were willing to spend this much because it meant that the incident was not a "hull loss" and therefore not as bad a hit to reputation and safety statistics. Does anyone know if that's true?

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#19

Post by libraryofbabel »

I once heard someone describe Admiral Cloudberg's air crash investigation blog as "the best thing on the Internet" and I still think that might be true. She is a great researcher and a superb writer, which stands out all the more these days in these fallen times of load-bearing AI slop. Her blog is beloved of both aviation geeks and, for obvious reasons, SREs (and other engineers).

She recently posted what's basically her magnum opus, on the Potomac river midair collision.[0] It's the length of a short book. I'm working my way through it; I'm taking a flight today, and I'll probably read it on the plane tonight.

This article, on how an A380 with 469 souls aboard almost crashed, but didn't, is one of her best. I like it because it's a happy ending, and a story of the combined effects of good engineering design (the astonishing degree of redundancy built into the A380 proved just enough to prevent catastrophe), and human troubleshooting under pressure in the cockpit by some smart people with vast experience who remained calm throughout. (Another favorite article of her, on the Air France 447 crash, tells the exact opposite story: poor systems design combined with pilots basically losing the most basic ability to aviate in the heat of the moment. That one is a much darker read.[1])

[0] https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/reaping-the-whirlwind-in... [1] https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/the-long-way-down-the-cr...

Re: Qantas Airbus A380 engine failure in 2010 (2023)

#20

Post by ginko »

realo wrote: post #14

Catastrophic failure? Check Plane landed without casualties? Check Plane design so good it helped avoid casualties? Check Hum... Ah! Not an american Boeing but a french Airbus. Of course. The article mentions this story should make everyone a little less afraid of flying. Sure, as long as its not on a Boeing plane.

Airbus is French, German and British. Not just French.
Post reply on HN