Summary
- The ATSB is investigating a FOD event on Qantas A380, with a tool found contained in the engine in February 2024.
- The tool was found while the aircraft was undergoing routine maintenance at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
- The tool had been missing since December 2023.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has disclosed that it was investigating a foreign object debris (FOD) event that involved a Qantas Airbus A380, which landed at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on February 2, 2024.
In accordance with the investigators, the event happened during a maintenance inspection at LAX when the Airbus A380, registered as VH-OQI, landed from Sydney Airport (SYD). The ATSB detailed that a compressor turning tool was found behind the fan blades of the #1 engine, which is the primary engine mounted on the left-side wing.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Easy Flying
The Bureau said that the tool had been missing since December 6, 2023. Nonetheless, the ATSB will release a final report when it concludes its investigation into the matter, adding that if a critical safety issue should appear throughout the process, it should notify all relevant parties.
Similarly to February 2, VH-OQI was operating flight QF11 between SYD and LAX, landing on the latter airport following a 13-hour flight. The day past, it operated a return flight from SYD to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG).
![A Qantas Airbus A380 flying in the sky.](https://static1.simpleflyingimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/qantas-a380-taking-off.jpg)
A Qantas Airbus A380 Is Making One Of The Longest Ever Flights Back To Australia
After emerging from the desert in 2021 and undergoing heavy maintenance in Germany, Qantas A380 VH-OQK flew 10,000 miles nonstop on December 16.
Eight A380 to return to service
With borders opening up once more in 2022 and demand for travel shooting back up, Qantas, very like other then-former operators of the A380, began returning its Airbus A380 aircraft back to service. Before the pandemic, the Australian airline had 12 double-deckers in its fleet.
Now, the number has gone right down to ten, with eight of them currently lively, in line with Qantas latest financial report for H1 FY2024, which covers the period between June and December 2023. The airline’s presentation briefly mentioned that its Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 aircraft may have WiFi starting in 2025, indicating that the airline still has long-term plans for the double-decker.
Photo: Robin Guess | Shutterstock
Out of the eight currently lively aircraft, VH-OQI has been the last to return to service, with the aircraft starting to hold passengers after greater than a three-year hiatus in July 2023, in line with Planespotters.net data.
The primary A380 that Qantas brought back was VH-OQB, which returned in January 2022, followed by VH-OQD (February 2022), VH-OQH (March 2022), VH-OQK (March 2022), VH-OQJ (June 2022), VH-OQG (December 2022), and VH-OQL (March 2023). Meanwhile, the 2 parked A380s, VH-OQA and VH-OQC, have been stored at Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport (AUH) since November 2022 and June 2021, respectively.
![VH-OQB Qantas Airbus A380-842 landing at Los Angeles International Airport](https://static1.simpleflyingimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/vh-oqb-qantas-airbus-a380-842-1.jpg)
Qantas Returns Two Airbus A380s And Adds 250,000 Extra International Seats
With more 787 Dreamliners and A380s coming back into service Qantas is ramping up capability on a few of its hottest routes.
When Qantas announced its FY2023 results, it detailed that its fleet of 28 Airbus A330 and ten A380 aircraft would eventually get replaced by the Boeing 787-9, 787-10, and the Airbus A350- 1000. The carrier planned to retire its Airbus A380s from FY2032, which begins in June 2032.
Special domestic flight
On February 23, the airline said it could operate a special Airbus A380 flight between Melbourne Airport (MEL) and SYD, as Sydney had been impacted by storms, leading to Airservices Australia limiting the variety of operations at SYD.
![Qantas Airbus A380](https://static1.simpleflyingimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/shutterstock_1115977946-copy-1.jpg)
Bad Weather Prompts Qantas To Swap A Boeing 737 For An Airbus A380
The superjumbo provided much-needed additional capability