Qantas finds 'anomalies' in A380 engines

Qantas has discovered “anomalies” in the Rolls-Royce engines of three of its A380 superjumbos.

The carrier said the news would mean the fleet would be grounded for a further 72 hours, pilling on pressure to a rough week for the airline.

The Australian carrier grounded its fleet of six Airbuses after an engine broke apart in flight last Thursday after takeoff from Singapore, showering the Indonesian island of Batam with debris.

An investigation since carried out by Qantas into each of the A380s has uncovered oil leaks within the fleet’s Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines, said Alan Joyce, CEO of the airline.

“On three of the engines what we found are slight anomalies, oil where oil shouldn’t be,” Joyce told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“We’re trying to check what the cause of that could be. These are new engines on new aircraft and they shouldn’t have these issues at this stage, so it’s given us an indication of an area for us to focus on.”

On Friday, a Qantas Boeing 747 was also forced to make an emergency landing after another model of Rolls Royce engine failed in mid-air.

It was still not clear what caused the engine failures, Joyce said.

Roll-Royce has not commented on the oil leaks identified by Qantas on its engines.