Qantas plays down latest mid-air incident

An engine problem on a Qantas flight that was forced to turn back to Perth was not a
significant incident, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce says.
The Boeing 767, which was carrying 234 passengers to Melbourne, turned back soon
after take-off at 7.50pm on Friday when the crew detected some vibration in the
left-hand engine.
"This is a vibration. It wasn't engine failure. It wasn't anything significant. This
should be regarded as a minor issue," Mr Joyce said.
"This would happen hundreds, if not thousands of times, around the world each year."
Mr Joyce said the pilot's actions in turning the plane around were appropriate and
demonstrated that the airline always put safety first.
"I think Qantas pilots will always act over cautiously and we expect them to do
that," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"They brought this aircraft back to the base, some other airlines may have gone on.
Qantas would never do that.
"We always put safety as the number one priority. I think the pilots did absolutely
the right thing."
All passengers on the flight, QF768, have since been placed on other flights and
have returned to Melbourne.
A Qantas spokesman said the problem with the Boeing 767 had nothing to do with
concerns over Qantas's Airbus A380 fleet.
The airline has grounded all six of its A380s after flight QF32 from Singapore to
Sydney had to turn back when one of its four engines exploded over Indonesia on
November 4.
The manufacturers of the A380 engine, Rolls-Royce, said on Friday the failure was
specific to the Trent 900 engine and that it was confined to "a specific component
in the turbine area of the engine".
This had caused an oil fire, which affected a turbine disc, it said.
The engine of the 767 is manufactured by General Electric.