QANTAS Airways and Singapore Airlines suspended flights by Airbus A380 superjumbos yesterday, after engine failure forced a Qantas jet to make an emergency landing in Singapore.

One passenger reported hearing a "massive bang" before the aircraft turned back, and Indonesian TV showed pictures of debris on the ground near Batam airport which it said belonged to the Qantas plane.

Authorities said none of the 459 people on board the Qantas flight were injured in the most serious incident for the world's largest passenger plane in three years of commercial flight.

"This was a significant engine failure," Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce told reporters in Sydney. "We are not underestimating the significance of this issue."

Qantas A380s use Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. Rolls-Royce, whose shares were down more than 5 percent, said it was working with authorities to understand the incident.

Aircraft maker Airbus said it will provide full technical assistance to Australian and French accident investigators.

One of the Airbus A380's four Rolls-Royce engines failed minutes after it had left Singapore for Sydney. Qantas CEO Joyce said that the plane was capable of flying on two engines.

Passengers said that they saw parts of the engine fall off. "I just heard this massive bang, like a shotgun going off," Tyler Wooster told Australia's Network Nine television.

"Part of the skin had peeled off and you could see the foam underneath and pieces of broken wires sticking out."

The flight had begun in London.

Singapore's Channel NewsAsia said the plane circled Singapore to burn fuel before making an emergency landing.

Former aircraft engineer Neil Shephard was on board.

"Four or five minutes after the flight (took off) there was a loud bang," he said.

"The pilot said there was a technical issue with the plane and then we circled around for an hour to dump the fuel. During the landing, it was a bit wobbly."

Passengers were kept informed at all times, others who were on board said.

Suspend takeoffs

Qantas, which operates six A380s, said it was grounding the aircraft pending a full investigation. Three A380 flights scheduled for yesterday, one originating in Sydney and two in Los Angeles, were canceled.

"We will suspend all A380 takeoffs until we are fully confident we have sufficient information about (flight) QF32," Joyce said.

Singapore Airlines said it will delay all flights on its A380 fleet pending precautionary checks recommended by Airbus and Rolls-Royce.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau was leading the investigation into the incident, Joyce said. Passengers stayed in Singapore overnight and a plane was due to be dispatched for them this morning.

Other airlines with A380s did not ground their aircraft. Emirates said it was not considering suspending flights as its engines are from a different supplier. European airlines Air France and Lufthansa said they would continue to use the aircraft as normal.

The plane involved in the incident was built in 2008.

More than 200 orders have been placed for the A380, and 37 are in operation worldwide, according to Airbus. The plane cost US$17 billion to develop and has been dogged by production delays.

Airbus spokesman Martin Fendt declined to comment on Qantas and Singapore Airlines grounding A380s, but said no airworthiness directives were issued mandating a halt to flights by the superjumbo.