Superjumbo's mid-air explosion due to badly built oil pipe, says investigation

Rolls-Royce has admitted it "fell short" of safety and quality standards after an engine explosion on a Qantas plane over Batam island, Indonesia in 2010 forced an emergency landing.

The renowned British maker of aircraft engines had to pay the Australian airline £58million in compensation after Qantas grounded its entire fleet of A380 jets following the incident.

Rolls-Royce issued a statement after Australia's transport safety regulator blamed the failure on a crack in an oil pipe feed in the engine, the BBC reports.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said: "The thin wall substantially increased the likelihood of fatigue cracking."

"The engine failure was a result of an oil feed stub pipe that was incorrectly manufactured with a thin wall that resulted in fatigue cracking of the pipe. This crack released oil into the engine during the flight, which caused an internal fire. That fire led to one of the engine's turbine discs fracturing and then rapidly over speeding before it burst, broke free of the engine casing, and impacted the A380's airframe."

According to the The Australian, Colin Smith, director of engineering and technology at Rolls-Royce, said: "This was a serious and rare event which we very much regret."

"At Rolls-Royce we continually strive to meet the high standards of safety, quality and reliability that our customers and their passengers are entitled to expect," he added. "On this occasion we clearly fell short."

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