A Qantas plane flew passengers from Sydney to Dallas and back with a large maintenance light accidentally left inside its wing, a investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has found.
According to the ATSB, the 33cm light was left behind after work was carried out on the Airbus A380-842's cooling system at Sydney Airport on January 7.
The aircraft was cleared to return to service and departed for Dallas-Fort Worth that afternoon after maintenance was complete, before flying back to Sydney on January 9.
It was only after the aircraft returned that maintenance staff realised the light was missing.
A search was launched and the missing light was found inside the plane's left wing.
The ATSB said the light had caused no structural damage or disruption to the aircraft’s systems, but warned foreign objects posed a "significant risk to the safe operation of an aircraft".
"To mitigate this risk, regulations, procedures and training have been developed and refined, particularly to manage the introduction of foreign objects during maintenance," it said.
The investigation found several checks had failed to identify the missing light before the aircraft was cleared to fly.
Maintenance workers did not spot the light during inspections of the wing, while the engineer who returned the equipment did not realise it was missing.
The aircraft was then issued a certificate allowing it to return to service despite the light remaining unaccounted for.
The report concluded the confined, poorly-lit and hot workspace inside the wing had likely contributed to the light being missed.
It also found Qantas’ maintenance information system did not automatically alert the certifier that a tool was missing before the aircraft was released.
ATSB chief commander Angus Mitchell told ABC News the incident was the result of a breakdown in processes used to ensure tools were accounted for after maintenance.
"Even well-established processes can be vulnerable when they rely solely on consistent human performance, particularly during maintenance tasks which are often conducted in challenging environments and under operational pressures," Mitchell said.
"Tool control systems and procedures must account for this variability with safeguards to detect and recover from errors," he said.
Second incident involving tool left inside aircraft
The incident followed another mishap involving a maintenance tool being left inside a Qantas aircraft.
In January 2024, an Airbus A380-842 was undergoing a maintenance check at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) when a tool was found behind the fan blades of one of the engines.
The compressor turning tool had been missing since December 2023, with the aircraft completing 34 flights — almost 294 hours in the air — before it was discovered.
An ATSB investigation into that incident also identified problems with tool control processes.
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