An engineer had left the tool in the engine, thinking someone else would need to use it again later on, a safety report said.

The Qantas Airbus A380 operated 34 cycles and flew for more than 290 hours before the missing tool was removed from the engine.

Emails and tool-tracking software weren't heeded, but nothing scary happened - except to the nylon tool An Airbus A380 operated by Australian airline Qantas clocked over 290 hours of flight time despite a tool having been left inside one of its engines,