Cracked: six Singapore Airlines A380s have wing issues

After Airbus’ halo A380 superjumbo was revealed to have a wing issue that saw small cracks start to develop on the new planes, Singapore Airlines has confirmed six of its A380s have suffered from the issue.

Singapore Airlines was the first to fly the famous A380 superjumbo, with Sydney being its first destination. Since launch, SIA now has 14 of the planes in service, but only six had done enough miles to qualify for the mandatory inspection for wing cracks. As expected, all six of the planes had cracks.

The small cracks occur on L-shaped wing brackets and are relatively simple to fix. It was first discovered on a Qantas A380 after its engine exploded in 2010. Of the six planes grounded with the issue, Singapore Airlines has already fixed four with the other two to be done soon.

Any airline operating the A380 has to complete checks of the wings if the aircrafts they are operating have completed more than 1,300 takeoffs and landings.

Airbus has said the results of the checks are expected and the fix is relatively simple.