SYDNEY, Australia — Qantas said the midair blowout near Singapore on one of its Airbus superjumbos was likely caused by material failure or faulty design in one of its Rolls-Royce engines, as the carrier ferried stranded passengers Friday to Australia.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told a news conference in Sydney that it was too early to say exactly what caused the engine failure that prompted the emergency landing Thursday shortly after takeoff from Singapore, and said that a thorough investigation was under way.
The company grounded all six of its fleet of Airbus A380s.
“This is an engine issue and the engines have been maintained by Rolls-Royce since they were installed on the aircraft,” Joyce said. “We believe this is probably most likely a material failure or some type of design issue. We don’t believe this is related to maintenance in any way.”
It was most serious mid-air incident involving the double-decker Airbus A380 since it debuted in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines flying it to Sydney — the same route that Qantas flight QF32 was flying when it was stricken.
Passengers were put on a relief flight bound for Australia on Friday morning, a day after the A380 suffered an engine blowout soon after taking off from Singapore, shooting flames and shedding large metal chunks over an Indonesian island.
It later made a safe emergency landing in Singapore, and Qantas grounded all six of its A380s.
“We have just taken off now. The flight was slightly delayed but we are told to expect a fast short flight of 6 hours 45 minutes,” passenger Matthew Hewitt told The Associated Press in a text message. Other passengers earlier said some of them were flying on two scheduled Qantas flights to Perth and Sydney, which had already left.
The stricken A380 was carrying 440 passengers and 26 crew. Qantas had earlier said the plane was carrying 433 passengers but corrected the number on Friday without an explanation.
After the plane touched down in Singapore, the engine closest to the fuselage on the left wing had visible burn marks and was missing a plate section that would have been painted with the red kangaroo logo of the airline. The upper part of the left wing also appeared damaged, indicating that one or more pieces from the engine gouged a hole in the wing.
Passenger amateur video from inside the plane showed white vapor coming out of the wing as the A380 landed.
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