Qantas aborts take-off twice before being cleared to leave at London's Heathrow Airport. Picture: Getty Images / file Source: Getty Images
Qantas pilots notice steering problem before take-off Take-off abandoned a second time; checked Four hours later, the flight is cleared and leaves safely
STEERING problems have forced a Qantas A380 superjumbo with close to 400 passengers to twice abandon take-off from London's Heathrow airport.
Flight QF10 from London to Singapore was scheduled to depart at 9.30pm London time (8.30am yesterday AEDT), but a steering issue forced the jet to return to bay for maintenance checks.
The flight eventually left at 2am London time.
A Qantas representative said the pilots abandoned the take-off while the plane was moving slowly along the tarmac.
It was returned to the bay where a steering issue was identified.
As the plane again moved slowly down the runway for a second effort, the take-off was abandoned as a precautionary measure, the spokeswoman said.
"As a safety precaution the aircraft returned to bay after take-off roll," Qantas said in a statement.
"Following multiple checks by engineers the aircraft departed safely and without incident."
Qantas denied passenger accounts posted on social networking site Twitter that the jet ran off the tarmac and onto the grass.
"The aircraft did not veer onto the grass," the representative said.
The steering issues come just days after Qantas announced it would check its entire A380 fleet for wing cracks.
Qantas grounded one of its A380s last Sunday after 36 hairline cracks were discovered on its wings.
Seven people were injured when the plane was hit by severe turbulence last month on a flight from London to Singapore.
Source: A day in the life of a wizard
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