An engine fault forced a Qantas Airways A380 superjumbo bound for London to divert to Dubai today.
The incident comes exactly a year since a mid-air engine blowout prompted the Australian airline to ground its entire fleet of A380 superjumbos for nearly a month.
The Airbus aircraft had an "oil quantity defect" in one engine which was switched off according to standard procedure, a Qantas spokeswoman in Sydney said, adding Qantas engineers would investigate the problem.
The plane, with 258 people on board including English actor, comedian and writer Stephen Fry, landed safely in Dubai.
"The two issues are completely unrelated. This is a one-off and we will look to get the aircraft back in the skies as soon as possible," spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said, referring to the latest incident and the engine explosion a year ago.
"Bugger. Forced to land in Dubai. An engine has decided not to play," he told his 3.3 million followers on Twitter.
"Not a great week for Qantas,” he added.
Fry also wrote several angry messages about leaving his wallet on the plane, but it was later returned to him.
He was flying back to the UK after touring Australia with the television show QI.
Each Qantas A380 is powered by four Rolls Royce engines. The carrier has 10 A380s in service and is due to take delivery of two more by year-end. It also has two more on order and deferred the delivery schedule for six others.
"We are aware that an A380 operated by Qantas diverted to Dubai as a precautionary measure. We are working with the airline to look into this matter," Airbus spokesman Sean Lee said.
Airbus has sold 236 A380s . By the end of September this year, it had delivered 57. The four-engined double-decker airplanes sell for $375 million each at list prices.
A Rolls Royce spokesman said the company was aware of the incident and was working closely with Qantas to provide appropriate support and technical assistance.
A Qantas Airbus A380 aircraft suffered an engine explosion on November 4th last year, after it had taken off from Singapore for Sydney. It returned to Singapore and landed safely.
Qantas, which has one of the best safety records in the industry, blamed an oil fire for the blowout
In last year's engine blowout, a turbine disc disintegrated and sent supersonic shards of metal through the aircraft's wing, severing systems and narrowly missing the cabin. Investigations have pinpointed a suspected manufacturing fault in an oil pipe which could lead to oil leaks and ordered regular safety checks.
Reuters