Qantas 747 engine explodes (or some other small problem)

[svoynick]

svoynick - your translation is spot on.

Operations will always want to know everything - usually because the media will be knocking at the front door before the aircraft has even landed.

Doesn't mean the crew will give them the answers though... that comes when they've got the spare time.

Yeah - it's been touched on in other threads, like with an engine out after takeoff...
(like here: http://www.liveatc.net/forums/atcaviation-audio-clips/ei-120-engine-failure-at-kmco/) 
I have great respect listening to pilots who, once they declare the emergency, and ATC is asking for information and (helpfully) suggesting vectors, etc... just kinda say (effectively) "you know, we don't want to rush into anything, we just need to fly it for a few minutes out here, get our aircraft and cockpit in order, and well let you know what we need next..."  It's cool to hear situations handled like that.

Fly the plane.  Fly the plane.  Fly the plane.

And Eric - just to reiterate, it's a great clip and nice work.  I even liked that you left in the multiple fuel dump calls, because it taught me that the controller stays on top of that and issues periodic "Attention all aircraft" calls to warn other traffic that it's going on.  Imagine flying through that hydrocarbon rain!

 - Stan

[Katanada]

After taking a look at the pictures, my preliminary guess is that the engine suffered what is referred to as "rotor burst". From the pictures it looks to be one of the forward stages of the LP turbine (N1).

Rotor burst rarely happens and its pretty much always uncontainable (unfortunately).

[joeyb747]

After taking a look at the pictures, my preliminary guess is that the engine suffered what is referred to as "rotor burst". From the pictures it looks to be one of the forward stages of the LP turbine (N1).

Rotor burst rarely happens and its pretty much always uncontainable (unfortunately).

My thoughts exactly. the pics are not the greatest...kind of grainy, but that was my guess...

[A_J_D_C]

   at time 14:10 on the clip the aircrafts on a five mile final when the twr notices that they haven't got there landing lights on  ...Considering the circumstances they done a great job, and the clip is awsome, covers the lot, good work

[MCM]

And did you notice the reply to that? Not one of surprise, but one of understanding.

What was the visibility and weather like at the time?

[joeyb747]

"An visual engine inspection following disassembly of the engine showed that all turbine blades had separated from the IP (intermediate pressure) turbine disk. The blades of the three LP (low pressure) turbine stages were fractured through the airfoil section of had separated from the disk. The LP stage nozzle guide vanes were destroyed, the remaining LP nozzles were substantially damaged. The LP turbine bearing and adjacent phonic wheel and speed probe were destroyed. The IP shaft was severed towards the aft end."

From the updated Avherald article:

http://www.avherald.com/h?article=4305467b/0003&opt=0

A great close-up photo of the damaged Stage 1 Low Pressure Turbine and the Intermediate Pressure Turbine is included in the report.

[joeyb747]

...not another one...

"A Qantas Boeing 747-400, registration VH-OJD performing flight QF-6 from Singapore (Singapore) to Sydney,NS (Australia) with 412 passengers and 19 crew, was in the intial climb out of Singapore when the crew decided to return to Singapore due to a problem with the #1 engine (RB211, outboard left). The airplane dumped fuel and landed safely about 60 minutes after departure.

Passengers reported hearing a "small" bang from the engine and seeing streaks of flame from the engine exhaust."

From:

http://www.avherald.com/h?article=433137f6&opt=0

To early to tell yet, and no pics accompany the article, but it may be related to the original topic here and the A380 thread in the other forum...there are ADs out on both the Rolls Royce Trent 900 Series (A380) and RB211 (B744) powerplants...

I linked to the ADs in the A380 thread if anyone would like to read them. Here is a shortcut to the A380 thread:

http://www.liveatc.net/forums/listener-forum/qantas-grounds-all-a380's-after-explosion/

[SASD209]

How did I miss this one when it happened?
Eric M, thanks much for the audio, really great job putting it all together!!   

[Eric M]

How did I miss this one when it happened?
Eric M, thanks much for the audio, really great job putting it all together!!   

Happy to do it, and I'm glad you found it as interesting as I did.

[briantambrose@gmail.com]

thanks for posting this. very good lessons to be learned.