French experts say serious fault in Qantas engine

French experts say the Qantas superjumbo that was forced to make an emergency landing in Singapore had suffered a “serious” fault at the rear of its jet engines.

Reuters

France’s air accident investigations agency, the BEA, said it would be involved in the probe into what went wrong on board the French-built A380 plane.

Passengers say they heard a loud explosion and saw fire from one of the engines. Debris from the plane was found in Indonesia but no one was hurt in the accident.

“It’s very likely the pilot stopped the engine when he spotted an anomaly. But we must be cautious, we don’t yet know the cause of the anomaly,” said Jean-Paul Troadec, the director of BEA.

Qantas grounded all its superjumbos following the incident. Air France, Lufthansa and Emirates say there are no immediate plans to ground theirs.

Qantas engineers want an investigation into the company’s entire superjumbo fleet, Australia’s aircraft engineers association, the ALAE, said.

The ALAE says there were serious concerns about Qantas airplanes with continued outsourcing of maintenance work, AAP reports.

In the past 10 years, Qantas has shut every in-house engine shop in Australia, ALAE said, adding that maintenance checks are now carried out in Germany.