Rolls-Royce Trent 900 - Notable Incidents

Notable Incidents

On 28 September 2009 a Trent 970 powered Airbus A380-841 (Registration 9V-SKJ) of Singapore Airlines Flight SQ333 was forced to return to Paris after an in-flight engine malfunction and shutdown. The cause of the engine malfunction is unknown.

On 4 November 2010, a Trent 972 powered Airbus A380-842 (Registration VH-OQA) of Qantas Flight QF32 suffered an uncontained engine failure (explosion) in engine number 2 en route from Singapore to Sydney and returned to Singapore Changi Airport where it landed safely. Qantas grounded its fleet of six A380s for over three weeks after the accident pending the investigation and said it may replace up to 16 engines after identifying potential problems. VH-OQA was repaired at an estimated cost of A$139 million. The aircraft has four new engines, a repaired left wing, and had extensive onground testing and two test flights. It returned to service on 28 April 2012.

On 10 November 2010, the European Aviation Safety Agency issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive, ordering airlines using the Trent 900 engine to conduct frequent and stringent tests, including extended ground idle runs, Low Pressure Turbine (LPT) stage 1 blade and case drain inspections and HP/IP structure air buffer cavity and oil service tube inspections. However, on 22 November 2010, the EASA eased its inspection guidelines, citing progress in the investigation. It dropped requirements for extended ground idle runs and requirements for repetitive inspections of the LPT stage 1 blades and case drain.

An investigation by Rolls-Royce concluded that the accident was caused by an oil fire and was confined to a specific component in the turbine area of the engine. The fire led to the release of the Intermediate Pressure Turbine (IPT) disc. It also said the issue is specific to the Trent 900.

Airbus determined that the IPT disk released 3 different high energy fragments, resulting in some structural and systems damage. It also concluded that segregated wiring routes were cut by 2 out of the 3 individual disk debris and as a result, engine 1 could not be shut down after landing.

On 18 November, Airbus announced it may seek compensation from Rolls-Royce for any disruption caused by the Qantas incident and the plans to re-assign engines.

In a preliminary investigation report of the engine failure of Qantas Flight QF32, released 3 December 2010, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau outlined safety actions taken already, including the issuing of a safety recommendation about potential engine problems with the Trent 900. The safety recommendation relates to a possible manufacturing issue with a misaligned counterbore in some pressured oil pipes, which could lead to fatigue cracking, oil leakage, oil fire, and engine failure.

Qantas claims that thrust restrictions recommended by Rolls-Royce following the engine failure have led to severely reduced payloads, making routes unprofitable.