Pilots of a crippled Qantas (QAN.AX) Airbus A380 superjumbo struggled with more than a dozen system errors after an engine blew apart on Nov 4 and landed the plane in Singapore with barely any runway to spare, an Australian investigation showed.

In fact, the plane may have been so badly damaged that the five pilots, with a combined 72,000 hours of flying experience, may have saved the day.
“The aircraft would not have arrived safely in Singapore without the focused and effective action of the flight crew,” Martin Dolan, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s Chief Commissioner, said on Friday.

As the Rolls-Royce (RR.L) Trent 900 engine blew apart over Batam Island, Indonesia, minutes after take-off, fragments ripped though parts of the wing, puncturing fuel, hydraulic and electronic systems and leaving the plane with limited flight controls, the ATSB said in a report.

But the magnitude of the damage became clear only when the co-pilot walked through the cabin and a passenger, another pilot, showed him a picture from a camera mounted on the plane’s tail and fed into the onboard entertainment system.

The picture showed the Airbus (EAD.PA) was leaving a trail of fluid behind -- most likely fuel and perhaps hydraulic fluid -- from a puncture through the wing.