Introduction
Qantas Flight 32, an Airbus A380, was a regular scheduled flight operated by the Australian owned Qantas Airways limited. Around 10 years ago, this flight was involved in one of the most notable air incident. On Nov 10, 2010, the aircraft was on its way to Sydney from London via Singapore. Just four minutes after the aircraft took off from Changi airport, it suffered an uncontained engine failure. After holding off for almost two hours, the pilot made an emergency landing at Changi. No injuries were reported to any of the passengers, staff members and people on ground and hence a big disaster was avoided.
This aircraft was the first Airbus A380 handed over to the Qantas airlines. It was nicknamed as Nancy Bird Walton after the pioneering female aviator of the same name. Serial Numbered QF32, it was on a regular schedule flying from London to Sydney via Changi airport of Singapore. On Nov 10, the aircraft departed the Changi airport as per schedule carrying along itself 440 passengers and 29 crew members in an Airbus A380. At around 10 am and four minutes after take off , a part of the wing was damaged by its Shrapnel causing leaks in its fuel tank. The leaks further caused fuel tank fire. To add to the tragedies, one hydraulic system and the anti braking system were damaged and were disabled. They went into "degrade" mode. The landing flaps and control for engine 1 were damaged too, making the plane largely uncontrollable. The crew entered a holding pattern to assess the situation. The problem in hand for all of them was to safely land world's largest airliner in a dire situation.
After almost two hours of holding an attempt to land was made by the pilot. The landing was hard and fast which caused four tires to blow out but the aircraft came to a stop with runway to spare. The plane was now on land but the issue had not been resolved yet. The leaking fuel was dripping down on the hot brakes and engine number 1 was not being powered off. Fire fighters came in time to put off the flames and achieved a complete flame out and the lives of the passengers were saved. The incident happened over the Batan island of Indonesia where debris were launched onto houses and cars with no human life loss.
After the incident both the Singapore airlines and Qantas airlines
temporarily halted their fleet of A380's and an investigation into the matter
was launched by Qantas airlines. On inspection it was found out that a turbine
disc in the engine broke result of an improperly manufactured stub oil
pipe. The engines were later replaced. On Nov 23, Qantas announced it
would partially resume its A380 flights by Nov 27. The pilot of the flight
Captain Richard Champion De Crespingy was lauded for successfully landing the
flight and saving lives of all involved.
