An Australian Airbus A380 superjumbo has made an emergency landing in Singapore after experiencing engine trouble over Indonesia.Qantas flight QF32 was travelling from Singapore to Sydney with 459 passengers and crew on board. No-one was hurt.
It is not yet known what caused the engine problem. A Qantas spokeswoman said there were no reports of an explosion on board.She was unable to say if the emergency might have been caused by volcanic ash from Mount Merapi, Indonesia's most volatile volcano.Qantas has grounded its fleet of six Airbus A380s pending investigations into the incident."We have decided that we will suspend all A380 take-offs until we're fully comfortable that sufficient information has been obtained about QF32," chief executive Alan Joyce told reporters in Sydney.Witnesses on the nearby Indonesian island of Batam said they heard a loud explosion as the plane flew overhead.What appeared to be debris from the jet was later found on the ground.Qantas says one of the jet's four engines shut down over western Indonesia but it was able to land safely with three.Witnesses at Singapore's Changi airport reported seeing smoke billowing from the aircraft as it landed.The Airbus superjumbo has been in service since Singapore Airlines took delivery of the first of the A380 planes in late 2007.The A380, a double-deck airliner, is the largest passenger plane in the world.Qantas' safety record is exemplary among major airlines, with only one fatal crash in its 90-year history.Seven people died when a small plane plunged into the sea off Papua New Guinea in 1951.