Qantas A380s update

A Qantas A330 taxis past two of the grounded A380s undergoing engine inspections at LAX - a third A380 is not visible behind the hangar on the left.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Qantas currently has half of their A380 fleet on the ground at LAX in the wake of an engine failure on an A380 flight out of Singapore last week. The airline announced earlier today that the aircraft would remain on the ground for another 72 hours (that's three days) while the Rolls-Royce engines are inspected. At least one of the aircraft on the ground at LAX has been reported to have an engine with an unexpected oil leak. Coincidentally, a Qantas B747 with Rolls-Royce engines returned to Singapore with an engine problem last Friday. There doesn't appear to be any connection between the two incidents beyond the airline, the airport, and the engine manufacturer.

A Qantas B747-400 touches down on LAX's runway 24 right

With the A380s temporarily out of service, we've been seeing plenty of other Qantas heavy jets at LAX. Yesterday morning when these pictures were taken, I counted a total of eight Qantas aircraft on the ground at LAX. There have been extra B747s operating to cover the absence of the A380s. I've also heard that Qantas put people up in hotels the night that the A380s were grounded. Reportedly, one of the late-evening A380 departures was already loaded when the decision not to fly the aircraft came through.

Here are links to a couple of articles. The BBC article has a Qantas A380 picture taken at LAX:

BBC: Qantas makes more checks over A380 engine 'anomalies'

LA Times article