Air safety investigators¹ in Australia say they have identified a serious manufacturing fault with engines fitted to Airbus A380 passenger jets.

澳大利亚航空安全调查委员会称，他们已经在A380空中客机上的引擎中发现了一个严重的生产故障。

The engine explosion on one of the A380s sparked a global safety review
A misaligned（不重合的） component² of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine used on a Qantas A380 which exploded last month thinned the wall of an oil pipe.

This caused "fatigue³ cracking（疲劳开裂） ", which prompted leakage⁴ and ultimately a fire.

The investigators warned that the critical safety issue could potentially lead to "catastrophic engine failure".

"This condition could lead to an elevated risk of fatigue crack initiation⁵ and growth, oil leakage and potential catastrophic engine failure from a resulting oil fire," the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said.

It said the problem was "understood to be related to the manufacturing process."

It urged Rolls-Royce to "address the safety issue and take actions necessary to ensure the safety of flight operations in transport aircraft equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 900 series engines."

'No risk'

Qantas said it would conduct further engine investigations⁶ as a precautionary measure（预防措施） , but stressed that there was "no immediate⁷ risk".

"Qantas currently has two A380 aircraft in operational service, following the grounding of the fleet on 4 November. Both A380 aircraft will be inspected at the Qantas Jet Base in Sydney," the airline said.

The pilots of the November flight made a successful emergency landing in Singapore after one of the engines exploded in mid-air.

Singapore Airlines, which also uses A380s with the Rolls-Royce engine, says it is already checking its fleet "on a daily basis".

"The new checks advised by the ATSB will be carried out as quickly as possible," the airline said in a statement.

Qantas Flight QF32 experienced an engine failure over western Indonesia, before safely returning to Changi airport. It was carrying 440 passengers and 26 crew.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said at the time of the emergency landing that it appeared the blowout（爆裂，喷出） was "an engine issue" and not one of maintenance（维护，保持） on the two-year-old plane.

It was the most serious incident involving the twin-deck A380 superjumbo passenger plane in its three years of service.

Not all A380s use Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. They are used on 20 aircraft owned by Qantas, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

The other A380 aircraft - with Air France and Emirates - use a different engine.

The double-decker A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner⁸, and can carry up to 800 people. The six Qantas A380s carry about 475.