Apparent Towbar Failure Sends Plane Partially Off Ramp

The world's largest passenger-carrying airliner has chalked up its first incident while in airline service. Singapore Airlines' first-ever Airbus A380 suffered minor damage to its landing gear Thursday, when the aircraft became disconnected from a tug during pushback and rolled partially off the tarmac at Changi Airport.

The truck pushing the double-decker jet back from the gate suffered "some form of failure," according to news reports, causing the tug to disconnect from the aircraft.

No injuries were reported among the plane's 446 passengers, who disembarked via airstairs. Most of those passengers were reportedly flown to their destination of Sydney, Australia on one of the airline's Boeing 747s.

"The plane steered to the right after it was unhinged on the runway," an airline spokeswoman told Agence-France Presse. "The front wheels moved onto the grass patch next to the runway but the aircraft did not move any further."

Singapore Airlines temporarily grounded the aircraft for inspection, but the plane was expected to resume normal operations Friday.

SIA took delivery of the aircraft -- the first A380 to enter revenue service -- in October 2007.

The incident at Changi occurred one day before Singapore Airlines received its second A380 from Airbus.

FMI: www.singaporeair.com, www.airbus.com