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Superjumbo makes emergency landing

Singapore - A Qantas A380 with more than 450 people on board made a dramatic forced landing in Singapore Thursday, trailing smoke from a blackened engine, after the Airbus superjumbo's first mid-air emergency.

Australia's Qantas Airways, which has never suffered a fatal jet crash in its 90-year history, said it was grounding all six of its A380s following the incident.

Qantas said flight QF32 developed major engine trouble just six minutes into a flight from Singapore to Sydney, and it dumped fuel over Indonesia before returning to Singapore's Changi Airport.

There were no injuries to the 433 passengers or the 26 crew, officials said.

Metal debris including a part bearing the airline's red-and-white "flying kangaroo" emblem slammed into areas of the Indonesian city of Batam, on an island just south of Singapore.

Witness Noor Kanwa described a "loud explosion in the air" and saw "metal shards coming down from the sky".

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the plane had experienced "a significant engine failure" to one of its four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 jets. The British engine maker pledged to work with Qantas to identify the problem.

"We will suspend those A380 services until we are completely confident that Qantas safety requirements have been met," Joyce told reporters in Sydney.

The four other airlines that fly the world's largest passenger plane -- Singapore Airlines, Air France, Emirates and Lufthansa -- all said they had no plans to ground their own fleets.

But Airbus and Rolls-Royce later advised Singapore Airlines to conduct checks on its fleet of A380s.

Airbus, which is betting its future on the commercial viability of the double-decker plane, said the Qantas incident had been "significant" but stressed the A380 was safe to fly on three engines.

"We are not playing down the incident, but it is covered in the certification procedures," a spokesman for the French-based company said, as France's air accident investigation agency launched a probe.

After disembarking relieved passengers recounted the incident to reporters.

German passenger Ulf Waschbusch said there was a loud boom and flames on the plane's left wing soon after take-off.

"Something ruptured the left wing," Waschbusch, a technology company executive based in Singapore, told AFP.

Six fire engines swarmed the jet on landing, spraying liquid on it, according to an AFP reporter at the Singapore airport.

One of the engines on the plane's left wing was blackened and its rear cowling was missing.

Passengers began emerging in the arrival hall of Changi Airport's Terminal 1 about five hours after landing, but were whisked away by security officers to buses, as a throng of journalists shouted questions.

"There was quite a loud bang, we just sat right where it happened," Australian Claire Quinn told reporters before boarding a bus.

"We could see all the damage on the wing. We were all pretty much scared stiff," said Quinn, who was travelling with her daughter.

The plane circled over Indonesian territory for nearly two hours, dumping fuel prior to the emergency landing, Waschbusch said.

"Everyone was surprisingly calm on the plane. We are not going crazy at all," he said. "The crew helped tremendously. I felt in good hands. Qantas did a great job in keeping us safe."

Hours after the incident Airbus received a boost as China Southern Airlines said it had agreed to buy 36 planes from the company for 3.78 billion US dollars. They are buying different models to the A380.

Qantas shares had been up 10 cents at 2.97 Australian dollars before erroneous reports that one of its jets had crashed in Indonesia sent them plunging to 2.82 dollars. The stock ended the day up two cents at 2.89 dollars.

After 18 months of production delays caused notably by wiring problems, the A380's first commercial flight, operated by Singapore Airlines, was on the same Singapore-Sydney route in October 2007.

Since the launch, fuel and computer glitches have grounded several A380s and one Air France flight was forced back to New York after problems with its navigation system in November 2009.

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

A total of 37 A380s are now flying commercially. Another 234 are on order from airlines, according to Airbus, whose US arch-rival Boeing is betting on the smaller 787 Dreamliner as the future of long-haul air travel.

burs-jit/apj

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