INVESTIGATION

-------------------------------------(QANTAS 32 Engine
Failure)
Siranjivi
Rooban

Contents
Air Crash Details
What Happened ??
Measures during MayDay
Procedures
Analysis
Report
Conclusion
Queries
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Air crash details

Aircraft Type

: Airbus A380

Aircraft Company

: Qantas - Australia

Failure

: Engine Burn out + Turbine Blade Failure

Date

Route

November 4, 2010

: Singapore - Sydney

Reason

: Manufacturing Defect

Consequence

: Engine collapse + Wing Structural Failure

WHAT
HAPPENED ??

QANTAS A380
Failure

Engine

Measures during Mayday ! !

Pilots Action :

Problems Occurred :

Disengage Autopilot

Turbine Overheat

Block the fuel flow

Engine No. 2 Failure

Lower the altitude

Leakage of Fuel

Land as soon as possible

Wing Skin Fracture

Safety of flight
passengers

Loss of maneuverability
control
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Procedures
Report to ATC as soon as Air Crash
Occurs
Reporting to the respective A/C Company
Report to respective Aviation Safety
organization ATSB

Retrieving Black Box data

Connecting the dots
Analysis
Report - Documentation

Investigate Air crash spot

Finding out the Clues
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AnalysIs
The possibilities of the engine failure was so difficult to judge by
the investigators.
But the clues obtained from the sight, was a broken turbine blade.
It was sent to the Rolls Royce headquarters for analysis.
From the analysis it was clear that the size of the turbine was
expanded when compared to the manufacturers specification.
The engine was then dismantled and investigated and found that
the burn out was caused by oil leakage.
Then the Rolls Royce found out that the STUB PIPE which was
near to the turbine got leaked.
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CRASH Photos

CRASH

Photos

10

CRASH

Photos

11

CRASH

Photos

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REPORT
A stub pipe is a oil carrying pipe which is fixed near the turbine
section. Since the dimensions of the Stub pipe was wrongly
manufactured, it caused the oil to leak out of the thin circumference
due to the increase of pressure at a high altitude. The leaked oil spilt on
the turbine making it to rotate at a tremendous velocity at 1495 deg.
Celsius. This was purely due to the overheat and it resulted in the
overheat of the Nickel alloy turbine to expand at extreme temperature
exceeding the limit. This caused the turbine blade to disengage from it
position and struck the nacelle and the bypass section of the engine and
also the fuel tank inside the wing resulting in the engine breakdown.
This was the reason for the fire breakout and for all the damage
caused.
After this incident all the A380 in the world was grounded for a check
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up for the same fault and it was rectified to prevent such a chaos.

CONCLUSION
Engineering develops only by making errors. But when the errors
exceed the limits they turn out to be a threat to mankind.
Aviation being the most dangerous sector of engineering has to be
more cautious and simple mistakes should be avoided in order to
sustain and maintain safety & profit.
This incident that happened to the QANTAS 32 proves to be a
silly mistake which was not noticed even by the greatest Engine
creators in the history.
We humans should always learn the good thing to eliminate the
false from our past mistakes to have a blooming future. Lets always
hope for the best !
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?? QUERIES ??

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