A mid-air tragedy averted last Saturday when a Singapore Airlines Airbus bound for Shanghai experienced a temporary loss of power to both engines. The flight was carrying 182 passengers and 12 crew members at the time of incident.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) said in a statement on Wednesday that the Flight SQ836 hit bad weather at 39,000 feet, about three and a half hours after departure from Singapore, New Strait Times reported.
"Both engines experienced a temporary loss of power and the pilots followed operational procedures to restore normal operation of the engines. The flight continued to Shanghai and touched down uneventfully at 10.56pm local time," SIA said.
The airline further said it is probing the incident and reviewing it with its plane-maker and engine-maker, Airbus and Rolls-Royce. However, engines were thoroughly inspected and tested upon arrival in Shanghai with no anomalies detected.
The Aviation Herald reported that the incident caused the airliner to drop 13,000 feet before the crew was able to restart the engines.
"A Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 enroute at FL390 about 140nm southeast of Hong Kong (China) when both engines (Trent 772) of the aircraft lost power," the aviation news website said.
Channel News Asia reported that engine-maker, Rolls-Royce, is cooperating with airliner by providing "support and technical assistance," while plane-maker Airbus is engaged in finding the cause of power loss. Singapore's Air Accident Investigation Bureau (SAAIB) confirmed the incident, saying that it is in process of gathering information and flight data from the operator.
Losing power in the both engines is an extremely rare incident.
"We do occasionally lose power in one engine for various reasons, but you hardly ever lose both engines. If that happens, you follow the procedures in your check-list and try to restart the engines. The pilots successfully did that here," a senior captain of a Southeast Asian airline told Reuters.
Singapore Airlines is third largest Asian carrier by market value. SIA, which has 29 A330-300s in its passenger fleet, flies to 119 destinations across 35 countries, according to the AFP.
