Friday, November 5, 2010

Rolls-Royce recommends engine checks after A380 incident

AFP - Friday, November 5

LONDON (AFP) - – Rolls-Royce on Thursday recommended that "basic precautionary checks" are carried out on its Trent 900 engines, after an engine made by the firm caught fire on a Qantas A380 Airbus.

The Qantas flight with more than 450 people on board made a dramatic forced landing in Singapore on Thursday, trailing smoke from a blackened engine, in the superjumbo's first mid-air emergency.

"Since Qantas QF32 suffered an engine failure and returned safely to Singapore Changi Airport we have been working closely with our customer and the authorities," Rolls said in an official statement on Thursday.

"In situations like these Rolls-Royce has well established processes to collect and understand information relating to the event and to determine suitable actions."

It added: "As always the safe operation of our products is our number one priority.

"The in-service fleet of Trent 900 engines is small and relatively new, and the group feels that it is prudent to recommend that a number of basic precautionary engine checks are performed. This process is now underway."

Rolls-Royce added that it would work closely with its customers to probe the incident, but stressed that the matter was at a "very early" stage.

"We will continue to work closely with our customers as the investigation moves forward.

"This is at a very early stage and it would be inappropriate to draw any conclusions at this time."

In reaction to the latest news, Rolls-Royce shares slumped 4.75 percent to 622 pence in afternoon London trading on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of leading shares, which was up 1.99 percent.

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