Singapore — First came the matter of determining how much of the Airbus A380 was still functioning. Then the issue was maintaining control of the crippled aircraft flying on the edge of a stall during approach with marginal aileron control effectiveness. Finally there was the problem of sitting over a rapidly spreading pool of jet fuel in an aircraft with white-hot brakes and an engine that refused to shut down.
The uncontained engine failure on a Qantas A380 on Nov. 4, 2010, did not precipitate a catastrophic accident, and 469 people returned safely to the ground at Singapore, said the Qantas Flight 32 captain, Richard de Crespigny, because five experienced pilots in the cockpit — three in the regular crew and two check captains — worked as a unified team with cool heads and a singleness of purpose.
In his keynote speech opening Flight Safety Foundation’s 64th International Air Safety Seminar in Singapore in November 2011, and in an extensive interview with AeroSafety Wo…
