Watchdog relaxes Rolls’ engine checks
EUROPEAN air safety regulators are to relax tight inspections on Rolls-Royce engines involved in a blow-out on a Qantas A380 superjumbo last month.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is to lift some checks on Rolls’ Trent 900 engines after an engine on a Qantas flight to Sydney from Singapore failed on 4 November.
EASA ordered all three operators of the A380 – Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa – to do the checks after the accident, which forced the Qantas jet to return to Singapore.
But investigators have since gathered enough data on the likely cause of the incident to enable them to reduce the inspections, EASA said.
The agency is expected to order checks after engines had undertaken 200 flights and again after the next 100, rather than every 20 outings.