SYDNEY — A day after a massive engine failure on the world’s largest jetliner, manufacturer Rolls-Royce watched a billion dollars vanish from its market value Friday, while another of its engines on a different plane caught fire in flight.
The Australian airline Qantas blamed the British aerospace company for the violent midflight disintegration on Thursday of an engine on the Airbus A380. Another Qantas plane equipped with Rolls-Royce engines suffered an engine problem shortly after takeoff late Friday, producing a loud bang and shooting fire before it turned back to Singapore.
Modern passenger jets are designed to fly after one or more engine failures, and both Qantas planes landed safely.
On Thursday, one of the A380’s four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines failed minutes into a flight to Sydney, shedding pieces of metal over Indonesia before it returned to make a safe emergency landing in Singapore.
“We believe this is probably most likely a material failure or some type of design issue,” Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told a news conference in Sydney. “We don’t believe this is related to maintenance in any way.”
Joyce said the engines had been maintained by Rolls-Royce since they were installed.
Rolls-Royce Group, a London- based aerospace, power systems and defense company separate from the car manufacturer, made no public comment. Its stock price took a beating for the second day, ending more than 5 percent lower.
