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Airbus rushes new engines to Qantas

European plane manufacturer Airbus is chartering a cargo jet to ship a batch of the latest version of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines to Qantas so the airline can get its fleet of A380s back in the air.

The move comes after revelations on Friday that Rolls-Royce has modified the engine to rectify the dangerous oil leak that caused the explosion on a Qantas A380 after take-off from Singapore on November 4.

However, the giant aero engine builder apparently failed to tell airlines about the issue or provide a fix for ones in service.

Training regime 'saved lives'

On Friday, one of Airbus' most senior executives placed the responsibility for the Qantas incident squarely with the British engine maker.

Airbus chief operation officer, customers, John Leahy said that Rolls-Royce was "constantly upgrading its engines" and that the new engines had a modification relating to the oil leak problem.

"The engines on the production line are to a new build standard and do not have the (oil) problem," Mr Leahy said.

Rolls-Royce is yet to respond to the Airbus allegation and has not given any explanation of the incident.

On Friday night, the company issued a brief statement which said only that "the failure was confined to a specific component in the turbine area of the engine.

This caused an oil fire, which led to the release of the intermediate pressure turbine disc."

Rolls-Royce has also produced software that will shut down a Trent 900 engine before it has turbine disc failure.

It is understood that at least two of Qantas' A380s in Los Angeles have engines that are to the new standard and are ready to fly.

But the airline says it is still working with safety authorities on the issue and there is no flight resumption date.

It takes 36 hours to change an engine on an A380.