By Suman Varandani -
Singapore Airlines has announced that it is investigating how one of its planes temporarily lost power to both engines mid-air on a flight from Singapore to Shanghai on Saturday. Flight SQ836 was carrying 182 passengers and 12 crew members.
The twin-engine Airbus A330-300 lost power after it hit bad weather about three-and-a-half hours after departure, the airline reportedly said, in a statement, adding that it is reviewing the incident with the engines' manufacturer, Rolls-Royce, and Airbus. The aircraft was reportedly the newest plane in Singapore Airlines’ fleet, which currently has 29 Airbus A330-300s.
“Both engines experienced a temporary loss of power and the pilots followed operational procedures to restore normal operation of the engines,” the airline reportedly said. “The flight continued to Shanghai and touched down uneventfully at 10.56pm local time.”
A report from the Aviation Herald reportedly revealed that the aircraft was flying at an altitude of 39,000 feet, about 162 miles from Hong Kong, when both its Rolls-Royce Trent 772 engines stopped working. The plane dropped to 26,000 feet before power was restored to the engines, the report stated, adding that the plane climbed back to 31,200 feet before landing safely in Shanghai.
Singapore Airlines reportedly said that no “anomalies” were found in both the engines, which were inspected after the plane arrived in Shanghai. In January, the airline was rated among the world's top 10 safest carriers by airlineratings.com, which reviews international carriers.
A spokesman for Singapore’s air safety regulator reportedly said that the Air Accident Investigation Bureau of Singapore “will be the authority for investigating this incident,” adding that the agency is “in the midst of gathering information and flight data from the operator.”
Aviation safety, and pilot training in particular, has been under scrutiny in Asia recently, after a series of safety issues.
“It is uncommon to have power loss in both engines. You don’t hear about it too often,” Greg Waldron, the Asia managing editor of Flightglobal, an industry publication, said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Fortunately, pilots are trained to deal with it in a routine manner and this incident only highlights the importance of pilot training.”