A Singapore Airlines A380 Returns To Paris After Engine Trouble

September 28, 2009 at 3:33 PM | by Omri | Comments (0)

A Singapore Airlines flight had to turn back mid-trip on Sunday after one of the engines on the plane—a giant A380 originating in Paris—decided to stop working.

The A380 is an ultra high-capacity airliner, designed by Airbus to compete directly with Boeing's 747 and its successors. It has two decks, four engines, and over 500 seats. All of which is a roundabout way of saying that it was loaded with almost 450 passengers and that they were probably not in the best of spirits after this:

The doubledecker A380 took off from Paris at 12.30 p.m... with 444 passengers aboard and was headed for Singapore, but had to turn round after 2 hours 45 minutes because of the engine problem... The plane landed safely back in France at 5.45 p.m. (1545 GMT) and the passengers were sent to hotels as the airline tried to lay on an alternative flight for them.

The A380 has only rolled off the assembly line in 2007, and there are still only 19 in operation. As far as anyone can tell this was the first time an engine failed on one of the planes, though with another 181 still waiting to be delivered it's not the greatest publicity Airbus could have hoped for.

Put into proper perspective, this isn't totally scary. The A380 is designed to operate normally and safely on only three engines, so returning to Paris was a precaution. But since this is one of the world's largest airplanes and it was filled with people on a route that would've taken it over at least two inhabited continents—the whole occurrence still qualifies as a flight from hell.

[Photo: Peregrine981 / Wiki Commons]

Related Stories:
· Motor fails on Singapore A380, flight turns back [Reuters]
· Singapore Airlines Coverage [Jaunted]
· Airplanes Coverage [Jaunted]

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