Qantas A380 med motorhavari i 2010 drar hjem fra Singapore

Richard de Crespigny, the pilot that was responsible for safely landing the Qantas Airbus A380 plane in Nov 2010, waves to photographers from the cockpit window of the same plane in April 2012 during a media preview. Foto: Associated Press

In November 2010, Qantas Airway’s brand new Airbus 380, named for pioneering Australian aviatrix Nancy Bird-Walton, suffered a potentially devastating engine failure minutes after taking off from Singapore.

The pilot in command that day, Captain Richard Champion De Crespigny, managed to return the plane to the island’s Changi Airport with no injuries to any of the 440 passengers and 29 crew on board. And on Saturday, after the aviation world’s costliest ever repair job, totaling A$139 million (US$144 million), the aircraft took to the skies again, with Mr. De Crespigny and Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce among the passengers.

“It’s just great to be taking Nancy home,” Mr. De Crespigny said.

Getting the aircraft flying again is of great symbolic importance to the Australian airline. Ms. Walton, then over 90 years old, was present in 2008 when Qantas first received the aircraft. Mr. Joyce recalls her nagging Airbus, a unit of European Aeronatic Defence & Space Co., to deliver the aircraft as quickly as possible. “I want to be around when it arrives,” Ms. Walton told the manufacturer’s executives, the Qantas chief said. At the naming ceremony in which the traditional bottle of champagne was smashed on the on the side of the plane, he recalls, she said, “Hope you didn’t scratch my aircraft.”

Ms. Walton died in January 2009 after a career in which she won the Ladies’ trophy in an air race from Adelaide to Brisbane in 1936 and trained women to back up Royal Australian Air Force pilots after World War II broke out. She was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia and was named an Australian Living Treasure in 1997. She was never involved in an accident in all the years she flew after earning her commercial pilot’s license at the age of 18.

At her funeral, the A380 named in her honor made a low fly past and tipped its wing to say farewell.

Now, after flying to Sydney on Saturday night, the Nancy-Bird Walton is ready to go back into service and is scheduled to fly to Hong Kong on April 28. Her name on the plane is written as Nancy-Bird Walton because she preferred the hyphenation her husband Charles Walton used.

“She’s running a little late…18 months,” Mr. Joyce told reporters at a briefing under the repaired left wing of the giant airplane. The plane flew as QF32, the same call sign it was using at the time of the 2010 incident.

Investigators blamed the inflight emergency on a manufacturing flaw in the Trent 900 engine made by Rolls-Royce Group PLC. The engine failure over Indonesia’s Batam island sent shrapnel hitting the wing, puncturing it and damaging crucial navigation systems before Mr. De Crespigny was able to safely land it.

“It is our flagship of the A380 fleet and it was heartbreaking when one news agency reported that the aircraft had been lost,” Mr. Joyce said on Saturday.

The engine incident initially prompted the grounding of the entire Qantas A380 fleet for over three weeks.

“We believe there will be excitement when the aircraft is back in air. People know that Qantas will not put an aircraft in the air unless it is absolutely safe. This aircraft is as good as new,” he said, adding that some passengers had changed their travel dates to be on the aircraft.

Mr. De Crespigny, who is scheduled to get into the cockpit of the plane as pilot in about three weeks, said he has absolute confidence in the aircraft. He added that he loves to get his wife and children on A380s as often as he can and is looking forward to flying the flagship jet again.