Qatar Airways Airbus A350 Diverts To Seoul After Crew Shuts Engine Down
On July 12th, a Qatar Airways A350-1000 en route from Doha to Tokyo Narita diverted to Seoul because of a problem with one of the engines.
After shutting the engine down, the pilots landed the aircraft safely at Seoul Incheon Airport (ICN).
What happened to Qatar Airways flight 806
A diverted flight is never good news. Besides being a cause of stress for passengers and crew, a diversion leads to a cascade of operational disruptions.
On July 12th, this fate was met by a Qatar Airways A350-1000 en route from Doha Hamad International (DOH) and Tokyo Narita (NRT). QR806 left Doha at 02:45 local time (23:45 UTC) for its approximately ten-and-a-half-hour flight to Japan's metropole. At 07:48 UTC, while flying 60 nautical miles (122 km) east of Seoul, the A350 left its cruising altitude of 33,000 ft (10,058 m) and started its descent towards Incheon International Airport (ICN), where it landed at 08:24 UTC on runway 34L.
Following the safe landing, passengers were transferred to another aircraft that flew them to their final destination of Tokyo.
The reason behind the diversion
After shutting down one of the Airbus A350's two Rolls-Royce Trent XWBs, the Qatar Airways flight crew diverted to Seoul's Incheon International. But what was the cause behind this decision?
The shutting down followed two fault indications - an engine chip and an engine oil leak. The former is linked to the Magnetic Chip Detectors (MCDs). These are used to detect metal chips, rubbles, or particles that end up in aircraft's engine lubrication systems, hydraulic systems, and gearboxes.
The MCDs work in that they contain magnets integrated into an electronic circuit. The magnets attract metal pieces and particles until the circuit is closed, resulting in the pilots receiving a warning message. Notifying the presence of metal particles in these systems is paramount, as they could be a sign of wear.
The consequences of oil leaking in an aircraft's engine can be dramatic. Besides the risk of making the engine inoperational, oil could leak onto hot parts of the plane's engine and air conditioning pressurization systems, causing smoke to spread in the passengers' cabin.
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