Singapore Airlines grounds super jumbos over engine faults

Singapore Airlines grounded three of its A380 super jumbos yesterday after tests uncovered problems with the planes’ Rolls-Royce engines.

The move came less than a week after an engine on a Qantas A380 exploded shortly after take-off.

Tests revealed oil stains in three engines on three of the airline’s A380s, Singapore Airlines said in a statement. The planes, in Melbourne, Sydney and London, would be flown to Singapore, where they would be fitted with new engines, the airline said.

“We apologise to our customers for flight disruptions that may result and we seek their understanding,” airline spokesman Nicholas Ionides said.

Last week Qantas grounded its fleet of A380s – the world’s newest and largest airliner – after one of the aircraft’s Rolls-Royce engines burst during a flight from Singapore to Sydney. The explosion showered debris over Indonesia’s Batam island.

The plane made a safe emergency landing in Singapore.

On Monday Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce said tests had uncovered oil leaks in the turbine area of three engines on three different A380s. All six of the Australian airline’s A380s remained grounded yesterday.

London-based Rolls-Royce, an aerospace, power systems and defence company that manufactures engines for A380s by Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Germany’s Lufthansa, had recommended a series of checks on the Trent 900 engines.

Lufthansa and Singapore briefly grounded their planes last week but quickly resumed services after completing checks. Singapore said today Rolls-Royce had recommended further detailed inspections of three engines after additional analysis uncovered the oil stains.

Bryony Duncan-Smith, a Sydney-based spokesman for Singapore Airlines, said she did not know whether the oil staining found in the Singapore engines was similar to the oil leaks found on the Qantas planes.