{"id":756155,"date":"2026-06-24T00:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756155\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T00:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:46:15","slug":"multiple-airbus-a380-planes-to-be-grounded-for-urgent-inspections-after-cracks-found-in-wings-australia-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/756155\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple Airbus A380 planes to be grounded for urgent inspections after cracks found in wings | Australia news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Airbus will inspect 16 A380 planes, five of them immediately, after cracks were found in a key wing component on aircraft used by the Emirates and Qantas airlines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has ordered urgent inspections requiring airlines to examine the wing-spar structure on the affected jets after inspectors found cracks during routine maintenance checks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The cracks appeared in a structural beam that runs along the wing and carries much of the aerodynamic load during flight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Of the 16 planes to be inspected, 15 are operated by Emirates and one by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/qantas\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Qantas<\/a>. The five aircraft to be inspected immediately are flown by Emirates, and they were to undergo the process as soon as Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Airlines using the A380 include Emirates, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Qantas, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Korean Air, Etihad Airways, ANA and Asiana Airlines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Emirates operates the largest A380 fleet in the world, flying over half of all active superjumbos.<\/p>\n<p><a data-link-name=\"standard link button Primary\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=copyembed&amp;CMP=emailbutton\" class=\"dcr-rh233e\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Cracks on an aircraft that \u201ccould reduce the structural integrity of the wing\u201d were discovered during inspections ordered by EASA in a directive issued in December 2025, the European planemaker said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">All A380s \u201cwith the same production history\u201d have been identified, and Airbus will carry out immediate inspections on five aircraft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Toulouse-based plane manufacturer will discuss with EASA whether repairs are necessary, an Airbus spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The 11 other aircraft can be inspected later, but before their thirteenth flight, that is, 25 cycles, with one cycle consisting of a flight, a takeoff, and a landing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The A380 has faced wing-related problems before and the EASA in 2012 ordered inspections after cracks were found in brackets linking the wing skin to internal ribs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">That affected the entire global A380 fleet and led to a costly repair programme which Airbus addressed through design changes on planes produced later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">A Qantas spokesperson said there was no impact to Qantas flights as a result of the airworthiness directive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWe have one A380, which requires additional inspections,\u201d they said in a statement. \u201cThe aircraft was already in scheduled maintenance and we will comply with any additional requirements as a result of this airworthiness directive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airbus will inspect 16 A380 planes, five of them immediately, after cracks were found in a key wing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-756155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}