Fallout from the exploding Rolls Royce engine

Qantas announced yesterday it had checked 16 engines of its A380 fleet and was satisfied the planes were safe to fly. It would begin to bring back the aircraft into service this weekend after having grounded its flagship fleet for 19 days following the Singapore flight safety incident. Pretty quickly into the investigation, the companies involved announced that leaking oil was probably the cause of the engine exploding. So is that it? Crisis over and everyone back to business as usual?
Not so fast. The incident is revealing about the state of the companies involved. Qantas seems to have emerged from the crisis well. CEO Alan Joyce has been adamant about safety first at the expense of losing money and his approach has helped build trust with the public. Rolls Royce is another matter though. Tight lipped and not very communicative to the public, its announcements have served merely to allow doubt to linger about what’s actually going on at the company, especially in light of other high profile engine mishaps. It may be worth watching what happens next at Rolls Royce. My bet is there could be further bumps ahead.