Rolls-Royce and Qantas

The Australian air transport regulator has published a report which blames Rolls-Royce for a mid-air failure of a Trent 900 engine on a Qantas A380 in November 2010.  The matter now appears to be closed.

"This was a serious and rare event which we very much regret", said Colin Smith, Director of Engineering and Technology at Rolls-Royce.

"At Rolls-Royce we continually strive to meet the high standards of safety, quality and reliability that our customers and their passengers are entitled to expect.  On this occasion we clearly fell short.

"We support the ATSB's conclusions and, as the report notes, have already applied the lessons learned throughout our engineering, manufacturing and quality assurance procedures to prevent this type of event from happening again", he added.

The incident resulted in a temporary grounding of all Rolls-Royce equipped A380 aircraft.  The Derby-based company later agreed to pay Australian $95m (£58m) as compensation to the Australian carrier.

Both Roll-Royce and Engine Alliance (EA)supply power for the A380.  There are firm orders for 264, of which 34 have no confirmed engine supplier.  Rolls-Royce easily wins in terms of airlines but lags behind regarding numbers, Emirates 90 aircraft, all EA (103 RR v 124 EA). www.rolls-royce.com www.qantas.com.au

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