European aircraft maker Airbus said it would seek compensation from Rolls Royce after one of the British manufacturer’s engines failed on a Qantas Airbus A380 superjumbo.

“We will seek financial compensation from Rolls Royce,” an Airbus spokesman said.

“Our production is currently far from normal” and Airbus is incurring additional costs because of the problem with the engine, he said.

The spokesman did not give any figures. In London, a Rolls Royce spokesman said the company had “no comment” to make on the Airbus statement.

Qantas of Australia said on Thursday that Rolls-Royce could have to replace up to 40 engines on A380 superjumbos operated by various airlines. “Rolls may have to look at replacing up to 40 engines across the entire A380 fleet,” a Qantas official said.

Qantas grounded its six A380s powered by Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines after one was forced to make an emergency landing in Singapore on November 4 after one engine blew out. Rolls Royce said last week the failure of a “specific component in the turbine area of the engine” caused the fire and mid-air blow-out on the Qantas flight shortly after it took off for Sydney.

In the wake of the emergency, the European Aviation Safety Agency ordered airlines to carry out new inspections of the Rolls-Royce engines.

The double-decker A380, which carries 525 passengers and weighs 560 tonnes at takeoff, was hailed as the future of long-haul aviation at its commercial launch in 2007.

Air France and Emirates also operate the A380 but their aircraft are powered by engines made by the Engine Alliance, a consortium of General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Safran, which are not affected.

Airbus head Thomas Enders said last week that the engine problem will affect deliveries of the A380.

“I do expect that this... will impact deliveries, especially in 2011,” because of checks on and recommended replacements to some engines, Mr Enders said, without giving a specific figure.

At the same time, “the reputation of this aircraft will remain untarnished and will even increase in the years ahead”, he added.

Drama in the cockpit after engine blow-out

The engine blow-out on a Qantas jet damaged the left wing, slicing electric and hydraulic cables and starting a cascade of system failures.

The pilots were inundated with 54 computer messages alerting them of systems that had failed or were close to giving out.

Richard Woodward, vice president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, gave a picture of the drama in the cockpit after speaking with all five pilots.

Among the pilots’ troubles, the wing’s two fuel tanks were punctured. As fuel leaked out, it caused a growing imbalance between the left and right sides of the plane.

The pilots managed to return the crippled plane to Singapore on November 4 and land safely, with 450 passengers aboard. Qantas’s chief executive officer said up to half of the Rolls-Royce engines of the type which disintegrated may need to be replaced by the three carriers in Australia, Singapore and Germany that use them.

Australia’s Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Germany’s Lufthansa fly A380s powered by four giant Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, with a total of 80 engines on 20 planes.

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