Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
Airbus on Saturday sought to minimize the scraped engine suffered by one of its A380 superjumbos operated by Korean Air as it banked while landing at Tokyo Narita airport. The incident happened when the plane, flying from Seoul's Incheon airport, touched down at Tokyo on Thursday morning, Korean Air said.
"A tube sticking out of the engine touched" the runway, a spokesman for the European plane manufacturing giant said, describing the incident as "less than minor" despite a dramatic photo of the landing circulating on the Internet.
"Our maintenance service has been informed... we don't yet know the reasons for this banked landing," he said, adding that the plane had already returned to Seoul.
Korean Air's first A380 entered service in June and the company has just taken delivery of its second superjumbo from a total order of 10.
Airbus' star A380 had to be temporarily withdrawn from the Paris air show in June after it crashed into a structure on arrival and lost a wing tip. It was Korean Air that lent its own A380 as a stand-in for the damaged plane.
© 2011 Agence France-Presse
16 Comments
Login to comment
ihavegreatlegs
Buy Boeing. Much better quality control.
TumbleDry
http://flyteam.jp/photo/KAL/Airbus-A380-861/66577/L
ihavegreatlegs: Quality control or human error? How can you state that Boeing has a better quality control? PR or stats or just the preference of a plane manufacturer over an another?
nandakandamanda
ihavegreatlegs, stating your preferences as facts can set the cat among the pigeons.
Someone could equally say, "Lucky it was an Airbus. If it had been a Boeing, it probably would have crashed..."
Let's be glad no-one was hurt and hope this event teaches us all something.
nandakandamanda
PS Why did the Korean pilot bank like that? Those crosswinds at Narita can be rough. You may remember the Fedex cargo MD plane that crashed and burned there in March 2009.
rainman1
@ihavegreatlegs: I am very interested to read your next post backing that statement up.
lostrune2
Planes getting too big. Margin of error getting smaller.
USNinJapan2
What another A380 mishap? Starting to look like a trend...
Serrano
I've seen a video of that incident, and I wouldn't call it "less than minor" as Airbus call it, I would call it a near disaster.
sumgai
It's the biggest passenger plane out there so it's more affected by crosswinds. It looks more likely to be pilot error. To the Boeing fan club here - have you followed 787 development? I'm guessing not...
jianadaren
sumgai, care to expand on why you guess not?
Elbuda Mexicano
Korean Air?? Sorry no kamsamhanida for me, no thanx!
USNinJapan2
sumgai
LOL. The larger the plane is the less it is affected by crosswinds. If you're flying a heavy like this behmeoth A380 you can disregard most crosswind limitations that would make a smaller aircraft unable to use a runway that's experiencing winds from the beam. The smaller the plane is the lighter it will be and harder to cut through cross winds. Nice try.
ebisen
Amazing how many pilots with vast experience on the A380 are on this forum... Even the student pilot with no flight yet knows that the opposite of what you just said is true...
CHAMADE
I am uncomfortable flying Airbus aircraft. Even in business, it feels crowded and cramped. Then there is the safety issue. I cannot feel comfortable flying on an Airbus. I prefer Boeings - they ooze quality and expertise.
rainman1
@chamade: A bold statement. I presume you have flown in Business class on the Singapore Airlines A380 then? I defy you to call that cramped under any circumstances.
Serrano
"Even in business if feels crowded and cramped"
LOL! I'll bet the ice cream is too cold too!