A Qantas Airbus A330-200 returned to Sydney shortly after it took off, after one of the three hydraulic systems on board suffered a leak. The airline says in a statement that it is now cooperating with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in investigations into the incident, which left at least two passengers injured. It is also in communication with Airbus about the incident, and will launch its own investigations. The aircraft, registered VH-EBC, was bound for Perth from Sydney, operating flight QF575.Qantas says the flight crew noticed an alert for the hydraulic system 20 minutes after take-off and elected to return to Sydney. It stressed that “no emergency was declared”. “Once the aircraft was back on the gate there were reports of a thick haze in the cabin, likely caused by hydraulic fluid entering the air conditioning unit,” says the Oneworld carrier, adding that there was no fire, even as some passengers may have thought it to be smoke. Passengers were evacuated from emergency slides and via aerobridge into the the airport terminal. Of the 221 passengers and 12 crew members on board, Qantas says two passengers were taken to hospital “for injuries sustained from using the slides”. A third was also taken to hospital “as a precaution”. Media reports from Australia state some passengers noticing a burning smell from the aircraft, and that it took a while for the aircraft to be parked at an airport gate.

Source: Cirium

Testing of the re-engined Embraer E2 family has revealed an electrical system anomaly which has spurred Brazilian regulators to order an urgent revision of smoke procedures in the flight manual. The emergency directive from Brazil’s civil aviation regulator ANAC focuses on the 190-E2 and 195-E2 variants of the regional twinjet. It states that the aircraft systems were being subjected to failure propagation tests including a deliberate loss of the number 2 essential DC electrical bus. ANAC says that, during the test, the smoke-detection system of the forward and aft electronics bays erroneously transmitted smoke warnings through the instrument panel’s crew alerting system. Procedures in the flight manual require the crew to respond by turning off the number 1 and number 3 busses. This would result in the loss of all essential DC electrical buses, causing a loss of power to the aircraft’s critical systems. ANAC says this impact on flight safety requires modification, within five days, of the flight manual procedure for addressing smoke warnings from the electronics bay. This procedure requires checking whether the crew alerting system is displaying a message warning that the number 2 bus is off, and conducting specific actions depending on the status of this alert.

Source: Cirium

Qantas has tentatively selected the Airbus A350-1000 for its Project Sunrise ultra-long-haul route initiative, following a competition against the rival Boeing 777X. The Australian carrier would order up to a dozen aircraft, and says a final “go or no-go” decision will take place in March 2020. Airbus has agreed to extend the deadline to confirm delivery slots from February 2020 to March 2020, says Qantas. “This provides additional time to negotiate an industrial agreement without impacting the planned start date of Project Sunrise flights,” the carrier adds. Qantas plans to commence the ultra-long-haul services in the first half of 2023. The airline says it carried out a detailed evalutation of both twinjets but says the A350-1000 will be its “preferred aircraft” should the Project Sunrise programme go ahead. The programme remains dependent on other factors. Qantas chief Alan Joyce says: “The A350 is a fantastic aircraft and the deal on the table with Airbus gives us the best possible combination of commercial terms, fuel efficiency, operating cost and customer experience.” Qantas has carried out two test flights using Boeing 787-9s operating non-stop to Sydney from New York and London, and will conduct the final one, on the New York-Sydney route, on 17 December. The carrier says the A350, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines, has a “strong reliability record”. Airbus will increase the maximum take-off weight of the jet, and install additional fuel tank capacity, to deliver the required performance for the Sunrise routes, says Qantas. ”No orders have been placed but Qantas will work closely with Airbus to prepare contract terms for up to 12 aircraft ahead of a final decision by the Qantas board,” it adds. Qantas says the Australian regulator has provisionally advised that it “sees no regulatory obstacles” to the Sunrise flights. But the airline still needs to finalise an agreement with its pilot corps. “The discussions are aimed at closing the last remaining gap in the Project Sunrise business case,” says the carrier. Qantas says it has proposed “a number of suggestions” to cockpit crew representatives on bridging this divide while still offering pay increases and promotional opportunities to long-haul pilots.

Source: FlightGlobal