Air-safety inspectors in Australia are investigating oil problems with an engine on a QANTAS A380 superjumbo after Pilots decided to reduce its thrust to idle about 2 hours out of London. The Pilots of Flight 31, enroute from Singapore to London Heathrow, noticed a gradual decrease in the amount of oil the No.4 engine was using while flying over Delhi, India, on Tuesday, February 15. The crew decided as a precaution to reduce the engine's thrust to idle about 2 hours' flying time away from Heathrow Airport. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said an engineering inspection later found that an external oil line on the engine had not been correctly refitted after it had been removed for testing. The Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine was one of many inspected in the weeks after a Qantas A380 suffered a midair engine explosion shortly after takeoff from Singapore last November. Qantas said today that the latest problem "is not related in any way" to the Flight 32 incident on November 4, which forced the carrier to ground its superjumbo fleet for weeks. It stressed that the engine was placed on idle thrust and was not shut down at any stage during the flight. The A380 involved in the latest incident, registration VH-OQC and pictured above, remains in service. The ATSB is continuing its investigation.
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