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| Qantas A380's out of commission. Now what....? |
www.Economy4ABC.Blogspot.com
November 7, 2010
11:10 a.m.
Australia-
Man, more problems for Qantas Airlines.
After a rough couple of days of operation that saw one plane engine fall off in mid flight, and another plane flight aborted 24 hours after that first incident, Qantas is grounding their famed "A380's" fleet until further notice. Tonight passengers are scrambling to make other arrangements.
This story is hitting close to home for me. We have one of very best friends staying with us from Melbourne, Australia for the next several weeks. She arrived here around 10 days ago, and two days later is when the Qantas problems really took off.
Here is the official notice from Qantas tonight:
"Qantas is continuing an intensive inspection program on all Rolls-Royce engines in its A380 fleet, but operations will be recovered and significant disruptions to passengers should cease within the next 24 hours.
As part of their investigation, Qantas engineers have removed a number of engines to undertake further examination.
Engineers have been investigating the engines in detail and how their components and design perform under operational conditions, as opposed to the original out-of-factory expectations.
The focus of the investigation has been narrowed to the possibility of an oil leakage in the relevant turbine area. However, investigations on other areas of the engine are continuing, in order to rule out other potential issues.
These inspections are taking place in Sydney and Los Angeles with Qantas engineers working closely with Rolls-Royce, as well as the aircraft manufacturer Airbus and Australian regulators.
Qantas will not return its A380 fleet to service until confident the issues have been identified and resolved. At this stage, Qantas does not expect to operate the A380 fleet for at least another 72 hours.
All Qantas aircraft are being utilised to ensure minimal disruption to scheduled international services. Qantas has scheduled extra services from Los Angeles to ensure passengers affected by the suspension of A380 operations are returned to Australia as soon as possible.
The backlog of passengers in Los Angeles is expected to be cleared by last departure from Los Angeles on 8 November with all passengers accommodated on specially chartered relief flights and across scheduled services. A Special Assistance Team has been deployed to Los Angeles to assist.
Hotel accommodation, meals and international phone calls have been provided for passengers impacted by the A380 disruptions. Qantas will provide compensation for customers who have experienced delays.
Regular updates will continue to be available on www.qantas.com
If you are "stuck" in Los Angeles because of the current Qantas situation, hit my comment section and tell me your thoughts.
RrE
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