Second Qantas jet in engine scare

The Sydney-bound Boeing 747-400 jumbo carrying 412 passengers and 19 crew, reported engine trouble soon after a take-off Friday and was forced to return to Changi Airport, according to a spokeswoman for the Australian flag carrier.

"Shortly after take-off the captain experienced an issue with one of its engines," the spokeswoman said.

"As a precautionary measure the captain sought priority clearance to return to Singapore. The aircraft landed safely a short time later without incident."

Passengers told reporters that they heard a bang and then saw smoke and flames coming from one of the engines.

On its website Qantas says one of its Boeing 747-400 models runs on a Rolls-Royce engine.

Earlier the airline said an engine design fault may have caused Thursday's dramatic mid-air emergency involving a flagship Airbus A380 superjumbo.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said early signs pointed to a "material failure or a design issue" in the Rolls-Royce engines after one exploded just minutes into flight QF32 from Singapore to Sydney on Thursday, prompting an emergency landing.

However, Joyce said Qantas' five other A380s -- the world's biggest passenger jets -- could be back in action within days, after safety checks by Rolls-Royce and Qantas engineers in Los Angeles and Sydney.

"This is an engine issue and the engines were maintained by Rolls-Royce since being installed on the aircraft," Joyce said in Sydney.

"We believe that this is most likely some kind of material failure or a design issue... We don't believe this is related to maintenance in any way."

Joyce's comments are the clearest insight yet into Thursday's events, when the blast rained engine casing on an Indonesian town and the superjumbo, carrying 466 people, turned back to Singapore.

He said that a second engine, next to the one that exploded, would not shut down after the landing raising further concerns.

The incident has thrown the A380 -- a double-decker aircraft vying with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in the long-haul sector -- into the spotlight three years after it took to the skies.

Since its 2007 launch, fuel and computer glitches have grounded several A380s and one Air France flight was forced back to New York after problems with its navigation system in November 2009.

In April, a Qantas A380 suffered tyre damage on landing in Sydney, causing a shower of sparks. Joyce said tyres also burst during Thursday's incident, but added that was of limited significance.

Specialists from Airbus arrived in Singapore after the European plane maker said it would cooperate with French and Australian accident investigators probing the incident.

Australian officials said the probe could take up to a year.

Airbus said it had urged all airlines operating A380s with Rolls-Royce engines to send their planes for "inspections to ensure continuous safe operations of the fleet".

Qantas, which has never had a fatal jetliner crash in 90 years, said the A380 was the first it received in 2008 and had recently had a major maintenance check. Airbus said it had completed 831 trips over about 8,165 flight hours.

Rolls-Royce urged airlines to carry out "basic precautionary checks" on its Trent 900 engines after the incident. A total of 37 A380s are currently in use around the world, though not all have Rolls-Royce engines.

Singapore Airlines (SIA), the first airline to operate the world's largest passenger jet in 2007, said it had resumed A380 flights after "precautionary checks".

Qantas said flights between Australia and Los Angeles and Australia and London had been affected by the grounding of the A380s, delaying about 1,200 passengers who would have a wait of about 24 hours for replacement planes.

"The pilot and the crew handled this superbly," Joyce said. One passenger called him "fantastic".

Most of those on the aborted flight resumed their journey and arrived back in Sydney on Friday, Australia's AAP news agency reported.

As well as the 37 A380s now flying commercially, another 234 are on order from airlines, according to Airbus -- whose US arch-rival Boeing will launch the smaller 787 Dreamliner next year.

Shares in Qantas fell 1.04 per cent to 2.86 Australian dollars in Friday trade, while Rolls-Royce shares were down 3.30 per cent in London by lunchtime.