Qantas A380 makes emergency landing in Singapore
4 November 2010
Last updated at 05:38 GMT (BBC)
After landing the Airbus A380 was quickly surrounded by fire enginesAn Australian Airbus A380 superjumbo has made an emergency landing in Singapore after experiencing engine trouble following take-off.
Qantas flight QF32 was travelling from Singapore to Sydney with 459 people on board. It had originated in London.
It is unclear why one of the plane's four British-made engines failed. No-one was injured.
Pieces of debris believed to be from an aircraft were found on the neighbouring Indonesian island of Batam.
Qantas said the plane, with 433 passengers and 26 crew on board, experienced an "engine issue" over western Indonesia soon after take-off.
"In line with procedure, the pilot sought priority clearance for its return to Singapore," the airline said in a statement.
Correspondents at the city-state's Changi airport said smoke billowed from the aircraft, which was surrounded by fire engines.
Firefighters were seen spraying liquid on the plane.One of the engines was blackened and its rear casing was missing.
Witnesses on Batam said they heard an explosion as the plane flew overhead. "There were metal shards coming down from the sky into an industrial area in Batam," eyewitness Noor Kanwa told the AFP agency.
The BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says aviation experts have identified the debris as part of a Qantas engine casing, but that the airline has not confirmed this.
A spokesman for Rolls-Royce, the British firm which made the engines, told Dow Jones Newswires that it would "work with Qantas to identify what the problem is".
The A380, a double-deck airliner which can carry up to 850 people, is the largest passenger plane in the world and made its first commercial flight in 2007. (BBC)
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