SINGAPORE—The temporary loss of power in both engines
of a barely weeks-old Airbus Group N.V. jet flown by Singapore
Airlines Ltd. Saturday underscores the significance of pilot
training, aviation experts said.
Singapore Airlines said Wednesday that the incident occurred
Saturday when flight SQ836 en route to Shanghai encountered bad
weather at an altitude of 39,000 feet, about three and a half hours
after departure from Singapore.
"Both engines experienced a temporary loss of power and the
pilots followed operational procedures to restore normal operation
of the engines," it said.
"It is uncommon to have power loss in both engines. You don't
hear about it too often," said Greg Waldron, the Asia managing
editor of Flightglobal, an industry publication. "Fortunately,
pilots are trained to deal with it in a routine manner and this
incident only highlights the importance of pilot training."
Aviation safety, and pilot training in particular, has been
under scrutiny in Asia recently, following a series of safety
problems. These include an Asiana Airlines Inc. plane that skidded
off a runway after landing in Hiroshima, Japan, last month; a
TransAsia Airways Corp. flight that crashed in a river in Taipei
after hitting a highway overpass in February; and the Dec. 28 crash
of an AirAsia plane in the Java Sea that killed all 162 on
board.
The Singapore Airlines aircraft, an Airbus A330-300 twin engine
jet, descended 13,000 feet before engine power returned, according
to flight-data tracking website Flightradar24. Singapore Airlines
didn't confirm the loss of altitude.
The aircraft was delivered to Singapore Airlines on March 30,
according to Ascend Flightglobal Consultancy, which keeps records
of planes. The jet's Trent 700 engines were manufactured by
Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC.
Singapore Airlines said the flight continued to Shanghai and
touched down uneventfully at 10:56pm local time. There were 182
passengers and 12 crew on board.
The engines were "thoroughly inspected and tested" upon arrival
in Shanghai and no anomalies were detected, Singapore Airlines
said, adding that it is reviewing the incident with Rolls-Royce and
Airbus. The same aircraft returned to Singapore with passengers and
was inspected again upon arrival in Singapore. The plane hasn't
been grounded, Singapore Airlines said.
Both Airbus and Rolls-Royce said they were aware of the incident
and were assisting Singapore Airlines with its investigation into
likely causes.
Write to Gaurav Raghuvanshi at gaurav.raghuvanshi@wsj.com
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