news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110516/wl_nm/us_singapore_plane
Passengers on Cathay Pacific flight CX715 disembark from the aeroplane after it landed safely at Changi Airport in Singapore Reuters - Passengers on Cathay Pacific flight CX715 disembark from the aeroplane after it landed safely at Changi ...
Slideshow:Stricken plane lands in Singapore - Mon May 16, 5:31 am ET SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Terrified passengers aboard a Cathay Pacific plane prayed together as their aircraft, one of its engines on fire, made its way back to Singapore on Monday, and their calm response earned praise from the captain. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd said the Airbus 330, bound for Jakarta with 136 passengers on board, landed back in Singapore "without incident" just before 2 am It said the crew shut down the engine after receiving a "stall warning." Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific said it and engine maker Rolls Royce were investigating the incident. Reuters photographer Beawiharta was aboard the plane with his wife, two sons and daughter. About 20 minutes after take-off, there were two sharp bangs, sending cabin staff scurrying to retrieve the meals they had only just begun serving. The plane began shaking violently, he said, and the lights went out. His son, Pradipta, 15, said he saw nothing as he peered out the window.
Reuters "But I asked him to cup his hands to get a better view," Beawiharta said. "A stewardess told us an engine had caught fire and we were on our way back to Singapore. Glued to the window, my son said he could see lights, the sea and ships and then lights on the ground. We all grabbed life jackets from beneath our seats, but the plane landed smoothly. "Within five minutes, as firefighters doused the damaged engine, we walked off the plane into the terminal." In the waiting room, the pilot greeted assembled passengers. "The best that we can ever ask of passengers is to stay cool, stay calm ... The plane was powered by Rolls-Royce's Trent 700 engines, which are specifically designed for Airbus' A330 family and captured the lion's share of that market in the past three years. A blow-out in a Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine forced a Qantas Airbus A380 to make an emergency landing in Singapore last November and prompted the temporary grounding of the Australian carrier's A380 fleet.
Report Abuse Prayers and calm passengers are credited with saving the passengers, but not the crew? The pilots saved the lives of everyone on board, it was their skill from years of training and hard work. The flight attendants likewise were no doubt ready to save lives during a fire and smoke filled evacuation but thankfully they weren't called on to do that job.
Report Abuse I was a metallurgical process engineer for Rolls Royce in the 90's however not on this particular engine. Most often this defect is caused by a forging issue, often what's known as a "hard alpha particle" in the titanium alloy. Although these parts are fluorescent dye and xray inspected prior to assembly, sometimes a small defect could be missed. A similar failure lead to the crash of United Airlines Flight 232 (in that case it was a fan wheel, not a compressor wheel) Frankly they are lucky the part blew out the way it did and did not cut into the wing and cause a fuel leak or further structural damage.
Report Abuse Remember that a new Rolls-Royce engine design intended for the Boeing 787 experienced catastrophic failure during a static full power certification test in mid-September. And just a few days before the failure, Boeing identified surging issues related to the Rolls engines on at least one 787 test aircraft. While incidents like this certainly do not prove causation, there does at least appear to be a relationship between recent engine anomalies and RR's advanced designs.
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