A Singapore Airlines Airbus A380-800 aircraft on the Hong Kong-Singapore route was turned back to Hong Kong on 5 June owing to a landing gear problem.
The 400 passengers were transferred to other flights, said the Star Alliance carrier. The aircraft was subsequently returned to Singapore following "rectification works."
In early February SIA defended the dispatch reliability of its 11-strong A380 fleet, stating that the introduction of the A380 has been smooth compared with other new aircraft. The comments followed a rudder control system fault that temporarily grounded an SIA A380 at Zurich Airport.
On 31 January, smoke was detected in the lavatory on another A380 while the aircraft was on a flight to Singapore from Hong Kong. The aircraft landed without incident, and ground crews later found charred wiring in the aircraft's cargo hold. SIA said there appeared to have been "a short in one of the generator cables".
"Technical issues do crop up from time to time, which is not unexpected even of aircraft types that have been in service for decades," said an SIA spokesman in February. "It has to be noted that the A380 is the world's first superjumbo aircraft, as well as the first aircraft with a clean sheet design in a long while, so any operational disruptions that occur will naturally garner more attention."
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
