SCAA Report Chronology On Qantas QFA32 Incident
Following Qantas QFA32’s fuel leaking and left wing punctured hole incident, Thursday (11/04), ATS Division of Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore through a letter signed by its Deputy Chief Air Traffic Control Officer (operations) Rosly Md. Saad sent a report to Indonesian Embassy in Singapore regarding the chronology of the incident.
SCAA Report Chronology On Qantas QFA32 Incident
The report stated that on Thursday (11/4) Qantas A388 aircraft carrying 469 passengers with flight number QFA32 departed Changi Airport – Singapore at 09.56LT for Sydney. At 10.02LT, the aircraft, which had already over Batam Landmass and on Batam Air Traffic Control Area reported an urgency PAN call to the Approach Controller citing a possible engine failure. At that time, the pilot of QFA 32 maintained height on 7,500 feet and requested to be on heading 150 degrees to investigate the problem, but did not request to return to Singapore immediately. Later on at 10.21LT, the aircraft reported that they had been gone through an extensive checklist and found that there was a hole in the side of engine number 2 and it had damaged a part of the wing. The pilot then requested to hold for half an hour before making an approach to Changi Airport.
A moment later, an air traffic controller (ATC) from Batam Tower, who had received a report stating that parts of an aircraft had been found on Batam Center-Batam Island made a report to Singapore ATC Approach Sector about the finding.
Despite the fact that the aircraft had lost parts of its wing, the pilot informed Singapore ATC that other engines apart from engine number 2 appeared to be functioning normal; thus required an approach on Runway 20C at Changi Airport and a towing assistance when the aircraft stopped at the end of the runway.
While the aircraft was stopping abeam taxiway E10, Changi’s Airport Emergency Service (AES) found that engine number 2 was damaged near the rear of the engine and fuel had leaked from the port side (left wing). Moreover, there was smoke from tyre number 7 and there were 4 tyres deflated, meanwhile, the pilot was not able to shut off engine number 1. Nevertheless, it was safe to disembark passengers. Exactly at 13.54LT, all passengers had been disembarked, and finally at 14.53LT, engine number 1 was finally able to be shutdown. Reports then made stating that QFA32’s engine number 2 failed due to “uncontrollable engine failure” and parts of the aircraft had fallen over Batam.
