SEOUL – A new Airbus A380 super jumbo has been grounded at a South Korean airport due to a mechanical fault, the latest in a series of glitches for the world’s largest airliner, officials said Monday.

The Emirates plane was scheduled to take off late Sunday for Dubai, but the flight was cancelled due to a technical defect, said airport officials in Incheon, west of Seoul.

It was the first such case since the Dubai-based carrier launched the A380 service to South Korea last December. The carrier has seven A380s.

“A technical problem has been detected in the plane’s fuel system,” an official at the carrier’s local public relations agency said.

The delay had forced some 420 passengers to stay at a hotel near the airport, he said, adding that the passengers would leave on another plane sent by the carrier overnight, after a 19-hour delay.

“Initial investigations on site could not resolve the issue and a team of engineers and spare parts were sent…later,” Lee Sang-jin, manager of Emirates Korea, said in a statement.

“All passengers were provided hotel accommodation and are scheduled to depart Seoul later this evening,” he said.

Air France’s new A380 was grounded more than once last month due to technical problems. Another owned by Singapore Airlines Ltd. had to return to Paris last month for attention due to an electrical fault.

A week ago a Los Angeles-bound A380 operated by Qantas Airways Ltd. was grounded at Melbourne airport due to a problem with its fuel gauge.

Source: business.maktoob.com