Bad fuel pumps ground Singapore Air’s A380s

It looks like the commercial Airbus A380s have hit their first snag. Singapore Airlines (SQ) announced today that it had to ground it’s only operational super jumbo because of an issue with the fuel pumps. Luckily the problem was detected while the aircraft was on the ground prior to departure and not sometime during transit.

SQ’s other A380 wasn’t rotated into the schedule because it was “undergoing maintenance.” No mention on this CNN article as to what that maintenance was, or whether or not it was related to the fuel pump.

As those in the know point out, however, what do you expect? With a new aircraft, new pilots and limited flight hours things are going to go wrong. It’s a good thing that enough checks are in place to rout out problems on the ground before they manifest in the skies.