An Airbus A380 operated by Australian airline Qantas clocked over 290 hours of flight time despite a tool having been left inside one of its engines,

Airbus A380 flew for 300 hours with meter-long tool left inside engine

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2024-11-15 15:00:04

An Airbus A380 operated by Australian airline Qantas clocked over 290 hours of flight time despite a tool having been left inside one of its engines, according to a report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

The 1.25 meter nylon rod, a "turning tool", was used during an inspection of the left outer engine's intermediate-pressure compressor on December 6 of last year, during a three-day routine maintenance check at Los Angeles Airport (LAX).

It was left in the engine by a maintenance worker who departed his shift early for medical reasons. The worker was told to leave it in place, as it was still in use, and assumed a colleague would ensure the tool was removed.

Over the course of the three-day inspection period, multiple engineers rotated shifts. It was noted that the tool had not been returned after being checked out. Maintenance crews did search for the tool, but it wasn’t found during two inspections – first because it was dark and an engineer didn't use a flashlight, and the second time because the inlet cowl where it sat was not examined.

According to the Safety Bureau report, at least some of the engineers didn't even realize what part they were looking for and thought the missing tool was a larger gearbox turning tool. If it had been the gearbox tool, it would have been reasonable to assume it would be more visible inside the engine.