A380 superjumbo makes emergency landing

An Airbus A380 belonging to Singapore Airlines was forced to head back to its base after an engine of the double-decker failed, only eight months after a similar type to the four Trent 900 engine failed on a Qantas aircraft.

The aircraft, bound for Hong Kong, returned yesterday once the Rolls-Royce engine completely shut down just 20 minutes into a flight from Singapore Changi International Airport due to high vibrations, as was confirmed by Nicholas Ionides, one of Singapore Airlines’ spokesmen. The superjumbo was carrying 368 passengers as well as 21 crew members. Thankfully, there were no injuries.

The flagship airline of Singapore became the first carrier, back in 2007, to start operating the jet, which holds the prestige of being the world’s biggest passenger plane – coming with two engines. Well documented at the time, the Qantas engine failure represented the worst in the entire history of the aircraft.

The incident forced Rolls-Royce into replacing engines on some jets when regulators identified faulty oil pipes as causing the explosion that forced an emergency landing. It’s very unlikely to become a common cause with problems that Qantas had, as clearly all the engines flying have thankfully had that issue resolved, said Nick Cunningham, a managing partner at Agency Partners, a research company based in London, company today.