Qantas, Rolls Royce Settle Over Engine Explosion

Posted June 22nd, 2011 at 4:18 am (UTC-5)
Leave a comment

Australia’s Qantas Airways says it has reached a settlement with British engine maker Rolls Royce over last year’s mid-air engine explosion on one of its superjumbo jets.

The airline issued a statement Wednesday saying the settlement is worth $100 million. The agreement ends Qantas’s legal action against Rolls Royce.

A Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine installed on a Qantas A380 jet exploded in November over Indonesia, forcing the crippled jet to return to Singapore to make an emergency landing. Qantas grounded its entire fleet of six A380s, which were installed with the Trent 900 engines.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says a design flaw in an oil pipe caused an oil leak, resulting in a fire that led to the explosion.

Qantas’s fleet of A380s did not return to full service until January, which cost the airline millions of dollars in lost profits and operating costs. The airline says the plane involved in the explosion will not return to service until February.