Sat, Nov 05, 2011
London To Singapore Flight Diverted To Dubai
A Qantas A380 on a flight from London to Singapore was forced to
divert to Dubai Friday after the airplane developed a problem in
one of its engines ... one year to the day after the uncontained
failure of a Qantas A380 engine caused the airline's entire
superjumbo fleet to be grounded for nearly a month.
It was a bad ending to a bad week for the Australian national
carrier, which started the week with a labor dispute which grounded
the airline over the weekend.
The flight, with 258 people on board, landed safely in Dubai
after an 'oil quantity defect" was detected in on of the airplanes
four engines. A Qantas spokesperson said engineers were being
dispatched to Dubai, and that the passengers were being re-booked
to Singapore on other airlines.
Reuters reports that Rolls Royce, which makes the engines
powering Qantas' A380s, is aware of the problem and offering
"technical assistance" to the airline.
Adding to the airline's woes was the presence of British
comedian and writer Steven Fry on the airplane, who promptly
tweeted word of the incident to his 3.3 million followers. "An
engine has decided not to play," he wrote. "Not a great week for
Qantas."
An aviation analyst who asked to remain anonymous said Fry's
tweets made the problem seem more than it was. He said the
diversion seemed like a "precautionary measure," but the
celebrity's tweets, along with the coincidence of the same date as
last year, "has made it a big deal."
Qantas says the problem is unrelated to last year's uncontained
engine failure. Spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said "this is a one-off.
We will look to get the aircraft back in the skies as soon as
possible."
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