[Greg McDonald]

From NEWS.COM.AU:

QANTAS is being plagued by engine failures caused by a "design" problem that may not be fixed until 2010, a report says.
The airline has told investigators examining an engine failure during a 2007 flight from Sydney to Los Angeles - in which "loud bangs" were heard before the pilot turned the plane around - that it had experienced four similar incidents in the past five years.

The airline also said three of the five "blade failures" inside its engines happened on a single plane and engineers have since sped up its service program for the fleet.

In a report released today, investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) concluded that the Los Angeles-bound plane's problem was caused by cracked engine parts.

Investigators said there was a "statistical probability" that there would be a similar engine failure within the next two years, but the airline was not being blamed for the problems.

"It was not possible to identify failure precursors or predict potential (engine) failures," investigators said in the report.

"The completion of modification to the operator's entire fleet of engines is not expected until 2010… there is a statistical probability of another failure within the operator's fleet before the entire fleet modification program is completed."

Qantas engineering general manager David *** said problems stemmed from a design issue and were not related to maintenance procedures.

"The issues raised are an industry wide matter," Mr *** said.

The ATSB report said another international airline had experienced seven similar engine failures.

According to the report, soon after the Los Angeles-bound 747 took off from Sydney Airport on February 3, 2007, crew members heard "several loud bangs and felt vibration through the aircraft structure".

The pilot shut down the engine and dumped excess fuel before returning to the airport.

"Immediately after the event, Qantas launched its own investigation and instituted a program to mitigate the issues involved," Mr *** said.

The manufacturer of the engines involved told investigators that it had been aware of the failures, which were believed to have been caused by vibrations.