Blast-hit Qantas A380 returns to service after repairs

A Qantas Airbus A380 jet that dramatically lost an engine in a mid-air blast off Singapore in November 2010 was formally handed back to the Australian flag carrier on Saturday after extensive repairs. The near-disaster led to the temporary grounding of the Australian flag carrier's entire fleet of the A380 super jumbos, the world's largest commercial passenger plane, for inspection. Pilots managed to guide the plane back to Singapore's Changi airport, where it landed with a plume of smoke in its wake, after the engine exploded over the Indonesia island of Batam. Qantas dubbed the repaired plane Nancy Bird Walton, in honour of Australia's first female commercial pilot. "Qantas is proud to reintroduce Nancy Bird Walton back into service," said Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce. "After 18 months, Aus$139 million ($144.30 million) and nearly 100,000 man hours of work, the aircraft is now going back into service." He said "there was a lot of damage to the aircraft" and that bringing it back to service was "one of the biggest repair jobs in aviation." Joyce was speaking to reporters before a ceremony in which Airbus handed the plane back to Qantas at Singapore's airport. Captain Richard de Crespigny, who was piloting the aicraft when the blast happened, received the flight log book from Airbus engineers in the ceremony held under the left wing of the hulking aircraft, next to the engine that exploded. Australian safety investigators have said that an oil leak in a turbine may have caused the explosion. All four engines were replaced as advised by engine-maker Rolls Royce. The repairs were carried out in the city-state by SIA Engineering, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines. The aircraft will leave Saturday evening for Sydney with de Crespigny at the helm and with Joyce, other Qantas executives and members of the Australian media on board. Saturday evening's flight to Sydney will complete the mission that was aborted 18 months ago. The plane will make its first commercial flight on April 28 from Sydney to Hong Kong. "I have absolute, complete confidence in this aircraft and I am very pleased that my CEO is going back on the flight tonight," de Crespigny said.