Not long after the world’s biggest airplane, the A380, was set to take off, Air France’s Superjumbo was forced to return to New York’s JFK airport 90 minutes after it took off because of technical difficulties.
The Paris – New York flight serviced by the A380 was just launched only 5 days ago in a hyped ceremony. Nicolas Petteau, spokesman for Air France, said the A380 suffered a “minor technical problem” that made the crew turn the plane around for checks.
Petteau said the plane landed safely, the technical problem was fixed and took the 402 passengers to Paris with a considerable delay.
“It was a minor glitch, but we do apply a principle of absolute caution and as soon as there is the slightest concern, we come back, we fix it and the plane takes off again. It was a problem with the in-flight computer but it did not at all affect air speed,” he added.
This is the second time A380 has to return mid-flight. A Singapore Airlines aircraft had to return to Paris on September 27 because one of its four engines failed.
Air France is the first European airline that owns Airbus’s biggest plane, the A380 superjumbo which can carry 525 people in the standard three-class layout . Other airline companies that own this model are Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Qantas airlines.
Air France is set to launch another flight serviced by the A380, between Johannesburg and Tokyo in the next months.