A Qantas Airbus A380 ‘superjumbo’ flying from Singapore to London was forced to divert to Dubai due to engine problems.
The airline said the aircraft landed safely in the Emirate “following an issue” with one of its four engines. The A380 was carrying 258 passengers and 25 crew when the aircraft suffered a problem with oil pressure, forcing one of the engines to be shut down for more than two hours.
One of the passengers on board was actor, writer and comedian Stephen Fry. He tweeted: “Bugger. Forced to land in Dubai. An engine has decided not to play.”
The incident came a year to the day since the engine of another Qantas A380 developed problems over Singapore, forcing a two week grounding of the fleet. But Qantas described the latest incident as a “one-off” and said it was working to arrange alternative flights to take passengers on to London.