2 December 2010
Qantas has announced plans to sue Rolls Royce over an engine fire in November 2010 on one of its A380 aircraft.
The Australian carrier has filed a legal claim against Rolls Royce, after issues with the QF32 Trent 900 engine, manufactured by the company, forced the airline to ground its fleet of A380 aircraft. In a statement from Qantas states that its actions allows the airline to keep all options available to the company to recover losses, as a result of the grounding of the A380 fleet and the operational constraints currently imposed on A380 services.
Despite the court filing, Qantas said it remains committed to working with Rolls-Royce on the Trent 900 Inspection program, in consultation with Airbus and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). The airline has also started talks with Rolls Royce directly on the financial and operational impacts of the incident, which could end in a commercial settlement and stop the case going to court.
Qantas started flights with two of its A380s this weekend, on the London-Singapore-Sydney route, but a further four aircraft remain grounded. The airline has stated that in-line with its conservative approach to operational safety, Qantas is voluntarily suspending A380 services on routes that regularly require use of maximum certified engine thrust and will do so until further operational experience is gained or possible additional changes are made to engines.