Singapore pulls engines from three A380s

Singapore Airlines will replace an engine in each of three of its Airbus A380 superjumbo jetliners after inspections turned up oil stains in them, the company said Wednesday.
The inspections followed last week's engine failure that forced an A380 from the Australian airline Qantas to turn back to Singapore shortly after takeoff. Singapore Airlines said oil stains were found in one engine on each of the jets, but the remaining eight its fleet had no problems.
The three aircraft -- currently in Britain and Australia -- will be flown back to Singapore without passengers for the work to be carried out, the airline said.
"We apologize to our customers for flight disruptions that may result and we seek their understanding," company spokesman Nicholas Ionides said.
The twin-deck planes, the world's largest airliners, are powered by Rolls-Royce engines. Rolls-Royce said it had identified a problem on the Qantas jet in last week's incident "specific to the Trent 900 engine." One of those engines shut down on the twin-deck jet, and a piece of the engine cowling fell off about six minutes after takeoff from Singapore's Changi Airport, prompting Qantas to ground its six A380s.