Powerplant problems comprise a relatively small portion of turbofan-powered aircraft technical failures reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) between 2008 and 2012, according to an ATSB Transport Safety Report released in June. Of the 20,500 safety occurrences of all types reported to the ATSB by flight crews and operators of Australian civil-registered turbofan-powered aircraft during the five-year period, approximately 1,930 occurrences related to technical failures; of those, only 280 of the technical failures, were classified as powerplant occurrences, the ATSB said in its report (Figure 1).
The report, “Power Plant Failures in Turbofan-Powered Aircraft,” is planned to be the first in a series of research investigations examining technical failures reported to ATSB over the five-year period. Other reports in the series will look at airframe and systems issues affecting turbine-powered aircraft, and technical failures involving turboprops, piston-engine …
