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| Date: | Thursday 24 February 2011 |
| Time: | 14:24 |
| Type: |  Airbus A380-842 |
| Owner/operator: | Qantas |
| Registration: | VH-OQG |
| MSN: | 047 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2010 |
| Engine model: | Rolls-Royce Trent 972-84 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | None |
| Category: | Incident |
| Location: | Near Ashgabat -
 Turkmenistan
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Singapore-Changi International Airport (SIN/WSSS) |
| London-Heathrow Airport (LHR/EGLL) | |
| Investigating agency: | ATSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The aircraft was enroute near Ashgabat about 8 hours into the flight when the crew noticed the oil quantity for engine #3 had reduced to 4.9 quarts (4.6l), 11 minutes later the quantity had reduced to 4.2 quarts (4.0l). The crew used satellite phone to consult with the company maintenance watch and subsequently reduced engine thrust to idle. Another 10 minutes later the quantity had stabilized at 4.2 quarts and remained at that value for the remainder of the cruise, that continued to destination. Upon commencing the approach to London Heathrow however the quantity continued to reduce and reached 0.7 quarts. Upon commencing the final approach the crew placed all thrust levers into the CLIMB detent and configured the aircraft for final approach, but soon received a ECAM amber message "ENG 3 OIL PRESS LO". The thrust on engine #3 was reduced to idle again and landed safely, while vacating the runway the ECAM message turned to red "ENG 3 OIL PRESS LO", cleared itsself and came up again a number of times. The crew shut the engine down while taxiing towards the terminal.
Maintenance found "that oil had leaked from the external oil feed pipe where it connected to the high-pressure/intermediate-pressure (HP/IP) turbine bearing support casing. The long-reach union nut connector was found to be ‘finger tight’. Maintenance personnel replaced the oil feed pipe, tested engine operation and returned the aircraft to service."
The engine manufacturer checked the leaking engine oil feed of OQG which were forwarded for further examination. There was no thread degradation or material distortion, however, the surface of the pipe's ferrule surface had fine radial scoring "gramophone" marks along with surface pitting/bedding marks. These marks did not conform to the manufacturer's engineering specification.
Of the total 16 oil leak events there were 4 between August and October 2011, where the surface of the oil pipe did conform to the manufacturer's engineering specification.
In further analysing the pipe connection the manufacturer found "the anti-rotation features (dogs) could allow the adaptor to move during the tightening of the nut. That could reduce the effective torque on the nut and consequent clamping force on the connection."
The engine manufacturer took safety actions to remove all oil pipes, the surface of which did not conform to engineering specifications, from service. As of current the manufacturer is in the process of "modifying the way that the external HP/IP oil feed pipe was secured to adjacent pipes. In addition, the locking arrangement for the long-reach union nut connector/deflector assembly was being revised and oil tank quantity trends were being monitored for early identification of oil leaks."
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
ATSB
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 8 December 2014 | VH-OQG | Qantas | 0 | Perth Int Airport, WA |  |
non |
| Loss of pressurization | ||||||
| 20 May 2017 | VH-OQG | Qantas | 0 | Approx 2 hrs SW of LAX |  |
min |
| Engine failure | ||||||
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 16-Nov-2024 15:48 | Justanormalperson | Added |
| 16-Nov-2024 15:51 | ASN | Updated |
| 27-Jun-2025 12:45 | Justanormalperson | Updated |
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