Singapore Airlines was forced to cancel an Airbus A380 flight to Sydney because of a fuel pump defect last month.
¡°It was a difficult delay. A problem presented with a fuel pump, and this is the sort of problem that doesn¡¯t show till engine start-up,¡± SIA said in a statement. ¡°This problem does occur from time to time with aircraft generally, but requires some time to fi x,¡± it said, adding that a replacement pump did not solve the problem.
Passengers were transferred to a Boeing 747-400, but because of the larger capacity of the A380 not all of them could be accommodated.
Just one month earlier SIA grounded the only other commercially operating A380 in the world after it became unhinged from a tow truck and rolled off the apron and onto a grass verge. Once it take delivery of its third A380, the carrier said it would start commercial flights to London on March 18.