2010-11-04 15:01

A Qantas Airways 380 passenger plane flight QF32 is sprayed by rescue services after making an emergency landing at Changi airport in Singapore November 4, 2010. [Agencies]

SINGAPORE - Qantas Airways suspended flights of its Airbus A380s on Thursday after one of the aircraft was forced to land in Singapore with engine trouble, one of the most serious incidents for the world's largest passenger plane in its three years of commercial flight.

The Airbus A380, which had originated in London and was carrying 459 people, suffered trouble with one of its four engines shortly after it had left the island state en route for Sydney. Australian officials said no one on board was injured.

Qantas, which operates six A380s,  said it was grounding the aircraft pending a full investigation.

"We will suspend all A380 takeoffs until we are fully confident we have sufficient information about (flight) QF32," Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce told reporters in Sydney.

"...The A380 is a fantastic aircraft. This issue of an engine failure is one we have not seen before. We are obviously taking this very seriously, because it was a significant engine failure."

There have been no fatal incidents involving A380s since they were launched in 2005 amid great fanfare as the greenest, quietest -- as well as the biggest -- jetliner.

Earlier this year, one of the planes operated by Qantas burst two tyres when landing in Sydney, and in September 2009 an A380 was forced to turn around in mid-flight and return to Paris.

"This is probably the most serious incident involving the A380 since it began flying in commercial service," said aviation expert Tom Ballantyne, chief correspondent of Orient Aviation magazine. "There have been minor engine incidents before but nothing like this."

Qantas A380s use Rolls-Royce engines. This particular plane had Trent 900 engines and was built in 2008.

Initial media reports said the plane had crashed after an explosion over the Indonesian island of Batam, near Singapore.

The reports sent the Australian carrier's shares lower but they later recovered.

NO FATAL QANTAS ACCIDENTS

Singapore's Channel NewsAsia said the plane circled Singapore to burn fuel before making an emergency landing.

A reporter said the plane was surrounded by emergency vehicles but there was no sign of any smoke or fire. One of the four nacelles -- structures that house the engines -- was missing and there appeared to be charring around that area of the plane.  Indonesian TV showed pictures of a small amount of debris on the ground near Batam airport which it said belonged to the Qantas plane.

Rusdi, a witness in Batam, told Indonesia's Metro TV: "After an explosion, the plane was still moving but smoke was trailing from one of its wings."

Qantas has never had a fatal accident. A mid-air explosion blew a minivan-size hole in the side of a Qantas 747-400 in 2008 which Australian air safety investigators blamed on an oxygen bottle.

Thursday's incident came just days before Qantas was due to celebrate its 90th anniversary with a special open day in Brisbane.

The A380 has been bedevilled with production delays. More than 200 orders have been placed for the aircraft, and 37 are in operation worldwide, according to Airbus. Qantas said the incident did not impact its standing orders for more A380s.