CO C K P I T CO N V E R SAT I O N S R ichard de Crespigny confirmed his place alongside Chesley Sully Sullenberger in the pantheon of modern aviations greatest saves when on 4th November 2010, with 469 people on board, his A380 flight QF32 suffered an uncontained engine failure after departing from Changi, Singapore. Despite facing more than 50 ECAM warning checklists, and having limited use of many critical systems on the aircraft, De Crespigny and his crew managed to bring the plane back to Changi Airport and make an emergency landing. On the ground, engine one had to be forcefully shut down with firefighting foam before passengers could disembark safely. Once in the terminal, De Crespigny reassured the passengers and answered their questions. Fatigue cracking of an incorrectly manufactured oil stub pipe caused an internal fire in engine two, with sections of the turbine puncturing the wing, leading edge and belly fairing. The event is detailed in his book QF32, and his second book, Fly! The Elements of Resilience, delves into human factors. QF32 was a team success because all pilots came together and merged our brains into one super-brain, he says. We had shared situational awareness and knowledge. What steps led you to QF32? It started in the Air Force. My instructor, Stork, had been flying Caribous twin piston-engine transports and knew I wanted to go to the F-111, the biggest, fastest and most technical. Stork said: Rich, youre not a fighter pilot; you dont have the ego you wont like it. The more advanced the technology gets, the more its held by umbilical to base. On the Caribou, youre flying around the country with the most basic technology, doing extreme stuff. We worked with the special forces, authorising our own ops in the desert. The damaged Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine from flight QF32. Shrapnel from the explosion punctured the A380s fuselage and wing After three weeks, wed come home and nobody even asked what we did. A magical time. I got a quick command, but also became bored and wanted to experience the pinnacle of leadership, so became an aide-de-camp to two Australian Governors General. That time living at Government House gave me a good view into foreign affairs and leadership. I discovered a lot of politicians were totally unrespectable, and the last thing I wanted to do was get to the top of the military and have to answer to them. My time there convinced me to get out. I made my way to Qantas because I didnt want to discount my flying experience. I flew the 747200/300/400, A330 and A380, and loved every minute. I had a charmed career, but it was also very hard people who arent pilots dont appreciate the continual stress we go through to gain the knowledge and do renewals. The stress is high for the alpha personalities, but so are the rewards. That increasing toolbox of knowledge, training and experience would all be critical in helping later. Youre analytically curious, but werent a test pilot. Where does this empirical scepticism, as you call it, stem from? My engineering interest developed from riding motorcycles in the Australian bushland in my teens. Ive always treated aviation seriously. You can kill yourself in a Cessna just as well as in an A380. Ive 24 THE LOG Winter 25 pp22-27 Cockpit conversations.indd 24 18/11/2025 15:24