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The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has begun interviewing the two pilots who were flying the Qantas Airbus A380 which experienced an uncontained engine failure on November 10.
The ATSB said in an update that the interviews are being conducted in Sydney, and are being assisted by an Airbus A380 test pilot. “The flightcrew interviews will provide an understanding of the aircraft’s performance during the emergency, and of the flightcrew’s actions to recover from that emergency,” the ATSB said in a statement. “The flightcrew will also be able to advise what went well during their management of the emergency. This will provide highly useful safety lessons for managing similar incidents in the future.”
Meanwhile, the ATSB says that the A380 in question, VH-OQA, has been moved into a hangar at Singapore’s Changi Airport, with the failed number two engine having already undergone a borescope inspection. It is expected that it will be removed over the next few days for further technical inspections.
The ATSB says that it is also continuing to cooperate with its Indonesian counterparts to localise the search for engine and other debris on Batam island, with a particular focus on recovering part of a fractured turbine disk. The recovered portion of the disk has now arrived at Rolls-Royce’s facility in Derby, UK, for further inspection, along with a copy of the recorded flight data.
“An investigation of this complexity can take up to a year to complete. However, should any critical safety issues emerge, the ATSB will immediately bring those issues to the attention of the relevant authorities,” it said.
