Qantas has begun legal action against the engine supplier Rolls-Royce following the explosion of an engine on one of the airline's Airbus A380s.

澳洲航空一架A380空中客机的引擎发生爆炸，该公司已经对其引擎供应商劳斯莱斯提起法律诉讼。

It said the legal action was back-up in case a settlement could not be reached.

Earlier, Australian air safety authorities said they had identified a serious manufacturing fault with some of Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 engines.

Rolls-Royce said the Australian findings were "consistent with（符合，一致） what we have said before".

Qantas has resumed flying some of its A380 planes after grounding the fleet for safety checks following the incident on 4 November.

The carrier said its legal action allowed it "to keep all options available to the company to recover losses, as a result of the grounding of the A380 fleet and the operational constraints¹（约束，限制） currently imposed on A380 services".

'Fatigue² crack'

Air safety investigators³ in Australia said they had identified a serious manufacturing fault with some engines fitted to Airbus A380 passenger jets.

A misaligned component⁴ 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 "fatigue cracking（疲劳开裂） ", which prompted leakage⁵ and ultimately a fire.

Rolls-Royce said in a statement: "We have instituted a regime of inspection⁶, maintenance and removal which has assured safe operation.

"This programme has been agreed in collaboration⁷ with Airbus, our airline customers and the regulators."

The investigation⁸ into the engine explosion was carried out by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).

It said: "This condition could lead to an elevated risk of fatigue crack initiation⁹ and growth, oil leakage and potential catastrophic engine failure from a resulting oil fire."

The ATSB added that the problem was "understood to be related to the manufacturing process".

And 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".