Stop press: Wheels fail to come off Emirates A380

Much breathless excitement doing the rounds on the Internet over the Emirates A380 which, if you believe the gossip, damaged its undercarriage after touching down hard, then aborting its landing, at Manchester on 6 September.

Some websites - one or two of which ought to have known better - ran with the unsubstantiated rumours that Emirates had 'dinged' the aircraft, either citing nebulous 'airport sources' or the ever-reliable nobody at all. Since the airline shelved the return flight and parked the A380 at Manchester overnight, the stuff about the bent wheels had to be true. Didn't it?

Not according to an Emirates spokesman who wearily explains that, yes, the aircraft briefly touched down during a gusty approach, and yes, it performed a go-around, and yes, it "went tech" but, no, it wasn't broken. There was an unrelated electrical problem which delayed the return flight, he says, but the wheels were fine, the wings stayed on, and the showers still worked.

"The nature of the fault was with the aircraft's electrical system, and not undercarriage damage, and the fault was in no way connected to the go-around," says a patiently-worded accompanying statement, although you can't help feeling Emirates was tempted to add: "So get a life."