NZFF

Qantas grounds A380s after explosion

Qantas has grounded all its Airbus A380 superjumbo jets after a mid-air engine explosion forced a jet carrying 459 people to make a dramatic emergency landing in Singapore.

The explosion tore through the aircraft's second engine shortly after the Sydney-bound QF32 plane took off from Singapore's Changi Airport this morning.

The explosion rained debris on a downtown area of the Indonesian island of Batam. No one on the plane or on the ground was injured.

The Qantas pilots immediately sought clearance to return to Singapore and the double-decker superjumbo, trailing smoke, touched down safely at about 11.45am local time (1445 AEDT).

Six fire engines swarmed to the plane, carrying 433 passengers and 26 crew, as soon is it landed on the tarmac.

Just hours later the carrier's chief executive, Alan Joyce, announced all its A380s had been grounded.

"We have decided that we will suspend all A380 take-offs until we are fully comfortable that sufficient information has been obtained about QF32," Mr Joyce told media.

"We will suspend those A380 services until we are completely confident that Qantas safety requirements have been met."

Passenger Ulf Waschbusch said there had been a loud bang shortly after the plane took off.

"We heard the boom, I looked outside and saw a little bit of fire," the German man told Agence France-Presse after he disembarked.

"Something ruptured the left wing, it was a small rupture."

The captain quickly announced they were going to dump fuel before making an emergency landing.

"We were circling for almost two hours dumping fuel," Mr Waschbusch said.

"Everyone was surprisingly calm on the plane. We are not going crazy at all.

"The crew helped tremendously. I felt in good hands. Qantas did a great job in keeping us safe."

Mr Joyce confirmed there would be some disruptions for passengers as an investigation took place.

Two flights due to depart Los Angeles and a flight due to depart Sydney later today had been suspended, he said.

"We will be accommodating passengers in hotels, making sure they're looked after appropriately and we will be using the rest of our fleets to accommodate passengers on appropriate flights going forward."

Mr Joyce said the investigation would "take as long as we need to take until we are comfortable".

"It looks like it's an uncontained engine failure but it's too early to speculate and will involve us doing a detailed investigation with the manufacturer Airbus and the manufacturer of the engine Rolls Royce."

Airbus, based in the French city of Toulouse, said the incident was "significant" but covered by procedures.

"We are not playing down the incident, but it is covered in the certification procedures," a spokesman told AFP.

The explosion initially sparked widespread online rumours the plane had crashed but they were quickly proved wrong.

Witnesses on Batam said they heard the explosion and looked up to see the plane on fire and shards of metal falling out of the sky.

"Before the parts started falling I heard a very loud explosion," one witness, Devi, told the local Antara news agency.

"It sounded like a bomb."

The A380 is the largest passenger jet in operation. Its first commercial flight was operated by Singapore Airlines on the same Singapore-Sydney route in October 2007.

Since then, fuel and computer glitches have grounded several A380s and at least one Air France flight was forced to turn around and land in New York after problems with its navigation system in November 2009.

In April, a Qantas A380 superjumbo damaged tyres on landing from Singapore in Sydney, showering sparks and scaring passengers.

Qantas has never suffered a fatal jetliner crash and prides itself on being one of the world's safest airlines.

- AAP[/quote]