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A380 Engine Failure

November 4, 2010 by · Comments Off on A380 Engine Failure 

A380 Engine Failure, (AP) – A look at serious jet engine failures following the Qantas A380 emergency landing in Singapore. Analysts speculated that an “uncontained engine failure” caused the power plant’s housing to disintegrate and damage the wing structure.

—According to international safety statistics, there are about 25 incidents a year involving a jet engine failing either in flight or on the ground. That translates into less than one for every million flights worldwide.

—The overwhelming majority of such occurrences end without incident because crews are trained on simulators to handle the loss of an engine.

—One of the best-known incidents of uncontained engine failure occurred in 1989, when 111 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-10 crashed while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa. There were 185 survivors.

—More recent incidents include a Saudi Arabian Airlines 747 after takeoff from Jeddah in July 2008; a Jett8 Cargo Boeing 747 freighter after takeoff from Singapore last December; and an ACT Cargo Airbus A300 at takeoff from Bahrain in April. All ended without injury.

—The most frequent causes of engines breaking up are the ingestion of objects on the runway or birds trikes. Also, mechanical problems such as rotor imbalances can cause microscopic c3cks to form on the turbine blades, leading to their failure.

—In May, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board recommended more frequent engine inspections to deal with the problem.

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