Engine troubles since 2008? On the night the A380 problem happened, I sent Qantas this link about an airworthiness directive …

First A380-related airworthiness directive orders Trent vane check

European safety regulators have drawn up the first airworthiness directive relating to the Airbus A380, mandating checks for cracking of vanes in Rolls-Royce Trent 900 high-pressure turbines.

The directive, issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency, states that development testing and flight tests of the Trent 900 have revealed evidence of cracking on some nozzle guide vane surfaces.

EASA says that not all nozzle guide vane assemblies are affected and that the problem would become apparent on affected engines within 1000 cycles.

Labor warns-off Cleary campaign. Campaign workers for the maverick former independent MP for Wills, Phil Cleary, now running in the highly marginal seat of Brunswick in the Victorian state election, are being pressured by members of the ALP against such involvement. It’s claimed those Cleary supporters who work for unions are being warned their jobs are at risk by their lack of support for the ALP’s besieged Brunswick candidate Jane Garrett.

Will the axe fall at The Fin? There are murmurs that Australian Financial Review editor Glenn Burge may have to take the fall for the business daily’s falling circulation, poor online subscriptions and waning authority as a national journal of record. While Fairfax Business Media supremo Michael Gill hardly sets the business world alight, the less-than-warm Burge is all but absent in leading business engagement or commentary in Australia, and most leading business, industry and political opinion leaders would not even know who he is. Morale at the AFR is low, and unlike just a decade ago, there are few specialist writers or commentators of authority. AFR journos, such as Burge and Gill, are AWOL in national discourse outside the masthead’s pages.

Business journo turning Green? Which leading financial journalist has a prominent Greens sign on his front gate? What would Rupert say about it?