SYDNEY, Australia - Specialists investigating the mid-air explosion of a superjumbo engine last week have narrowed their search in Indonesia for missing parts that could be clues.
The Australian Transport and Safety Bureau said Friday it was sending officials to join Indonesian authorities looking for engine parts and debris that littered Batam island when the Qantas A380's Rolls-Royce engine disintegrated on takeoff from Singapore on Nov. 4.
The bureau said in an update that investigators have probed the stricken engine with borescopes -- flexible tube-like microscopes with a light attached that are used for poking into hard-to-reach places -- and pulled some components off to be inspected.
A key clue, a chunk of a turbine disc, is being examined at a Rolls-Royce facility in England.
