The European Aviation Safety Agency issued a warning in August over excessive wear in the Rolls-Royce engines used aboard the Qantas Airways Airbus A380 that was forced to make an emergency landing Thursday in Singapore. 
 
 The air worthiness directive, dated Aug. 4, cautioned that "wear, beyond Engine Manual limits" had been identified on the the Rolls-Royce PLC Trent 900 — the same engine that disintegrated on Qantas Flight 32 shortly after takeoff, forcing the superjumbo jet to make an emergency landing and showering debris onto houses and a shopping mall below. The directive also warned that problems with the engine could "result in loss of engine performance with potential for in-flight shut down." 
 
 Not all airlines with A380s use Rolls-Royce engines. But Qantas grounded its six-strong A380 fleet, which all use Rolls-Royce engines, after the midair incident. 
 
 Rolls-Royce issued a statement Thursday that the company was recommending a series of checks on the Trent 900 engines. "The in-service fleet of Trent 900 engines is small and relatively new, and the group feels that it is prudent to recommend that a number of basic precautionary engine checks are performed. This process is now under way," the engine maker said. 
 
 "We will continue to work closely with our customers as the investigation moves forward. This is at a very early stage and it would be inappropriate to draw any conclusions at this time. 
 
 "As always the safe operation of our products is our number one priority," the statement said. 
 
 Qantas said the Airbus A380 — which had stopped off en route from London to Sydney, Australia — suffered a "significant engine failure" shortly after takeoff from Singapore. The plane turned around and landed safely with no injuries. 
 
 The carrier said there was no explosion, but passengers among the 459 people on board Flight 32 variously reported hearing a "massive bang" or a "loud boom," with one describing the incident as "the scariest thing I had seen." 
 
 Facts on the Airbus A380 
 
 
 
 After the plane made an emergency landing in Singapore, the engine closest to the fuselage on the left wing had visible burn marks and was missing a section of plate that would have been painted with the red kangaroo logo of the airline. The upper part of the left wing also appeared damaged. 
 
 The pieces, mostly small, torn metal but some the size of doors, were brought to police headquarters for the investigation. Pictures of the pieces were shown on Indonesia's MetroTV broadcaster, with people milling around. 
 
 The aircraft was delivered to Qantas in September of 2008, and has logged around 8,165 flight hours, Airbus said. 
 
 Some carriers ground A380s 
 
 Thursday's incident was one of most serious for the A380, the world's biggest passenger jet, in its three years of commercial flight. 
 
 "We will suspend all A380 takeoffs until we are fully confident we have sufficient information about (flight) QF32," Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce told reporters. 
 
 The carrier had three A380 flights scheduled for Thursday, one originating in Sydney and two in Los Angeles. 
 
 Singapore Airlines also delayed all flights on its fleet of 10 A380s pending precautionary checks recommended by Airbus and Rolls-Royce. It was not immediately clear how many flights would be affected or for how long. 
 
 Emirates said it was not considering suspending flights as its engines are from a different supplier. "All of our Emirates A380s are operating as scheduled," the carrier said in a statement. "Emirates has 13 A380 aircraft in operation, powered by Engine Alliance GP7200 engines. The safety of our passengers and crew is always of paramount importance." 
 
 European airlines Air France and Lufthansa said they would continue to use the aircraft as normal. 
 
 Thirty-seven A380s are in operation around the world. 
 
 "The A380 is a fantastic aircraft. This issue of an engine failure is one we have not seen before. We are obviously taking this very seriously, because it was a significant engine failure," Joyce said. 
 
 'Like a shotgun going off' 
 
 Former aircraft engineer Neil Shephard was on board Flight 32. "Four or five minutes after the flight (took off) there was a loud bang," he told Reuters. "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." 
 
 "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, pieces of broken wires sticking out." 
 
 "My whole body just went to jelly and I didn't know what was going to happen as we were going down, if we were going to be OK," he added. 
 
 "I was sitting over the wing, where the No. 2 engine is. I was looking out of the window on the tarmac as we took off," Ulf Waschbusch, another passenger, told Reuters. 
 
 "Five minutes after take-off there was a loud boom, small pieces flying around (outside), it was the scariest thing I had seen. The plane was surprisingly stable all through. There was no panic," he said. 
 
 Rosemary Hegardy, 60, of Sydney, told The Associated Press that she heard two bangs and saw yellow flames from her window. 

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A passenger's mobile phone footage shows the damage to the Qantas plane's wing 
 
 The Australian airline Qantas has grounded its six-strong fleet of Airbus A380 airliners after one of the superjumbos made an emergency landing. 
 
 Qantas flight QF32 experienced engine trouble shortly after taking off from Singapore on its way to Sydney. 
 
 One of the engines exploded with a bang, a passenger told the BBC, and debris was found on an island below. 
 
 Singapore Airlines said its A380 flights would be delayed pending technical checks. 
 
 Engine maker Rolls-Royce said it was in the process of checking the 20 A380 planes currently in service - with Qantas, Singapore and Lufthansa - that use its Trent 900 engines. It said "the safe operation of our products is our number one priority". 
 
 The other 17 A380s in service - with Air France and Emirates - use another engine. 
 
 One area of investigation will be a European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) airworthiness report in August that flagged up one potential problem with the engine. There is no evidence that this is linked to the latest incident. 
 
 'Big scare' 
 
 Qantas said flight QF32, with 433 passengers and 26 crew on board, experienced an "engine issue" over western Indonesia shortly after taking off from Singapore at about 1000 (0200 GMT). 
 
 When we got off and saw the engine itself and the back casing burnt off, that was pretty scary. I'm just happy to be alive and safe Lars Sandberg, Passenger 'Happy to be alive''Everyone gasped' 
 
 "It's a significant engine failure," Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said at a news conference. 
 
 "We do take our safety reputation and our safety standards unbelievably seriously. And we're not going to take any risks with passenger safety - and as a precaution, we're suspending the flights of the A380 aircraft until we're comfortable that we understand the reasons for this." 
 
 No-one was injured during the incident, which ended at Singapore's Changi airport. 
 
 Smoke billowed from the aircraft, which aviation experts say is capable of flying on two engines. One of the engines was blackened and its rear casing was missing. 
 
 A team of air crash investigators is being sent to Singapore from France, where Airbus is based, to assist in the investigation. 
 
 "I was on the plane right next to engine two, which exploded with a loud bang within the first 10-15 minutes of take-off," Lars Sandberg, a DJ who was travelling to Sydney, told the BBC. 
 
 "I thought that something had fallen down in cargo underneath the plane, but the plane started shaking... I'm a little bit shaken up. 
 
 "The captain did a good job, though, in reassuring us, making announcements every few minutes." 
 
 Passengers said the pilot spent at least an hour and a half circling and discharging fuel ahead of the emergency landing. 
 
 Airbus A380 World's biggest passenger jet, with two full-length decks 
 
 Can carry up to 800 passengers 
 
 Can fly 15,200 km (9,424 miles) 
 
 First commercial flight October 2007 
 
 Length 73m (238ft) 
 
 Wingspan 80m (262ft) 
 
 Current operators (Rolls-Royce engine): Qantas (6 planes); Singapore (11); Lufthansa (3) 
 
 Current operators (Engine Alliance engine): Air France (4); Emirates (13) Factfile: Airbus A380 Spotlight on Airbus and Roll-Royce 
 
 "When we got off and saw the engine itself and the back casing burnt off, that was pretty scary," Mr Sandberg said. 
 
 The BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says aviation experts have identified debris that fell on the Indonesian island of Batam as part of a Qantas engine casing. 
 
 A teacher on Batam, Indra Kurniawan, told the BBC World Service: "We heard an explosion. Then I saw rubbish in the sky but after one of the pieces hit our school, we all knew it was debris from the plane." 
 
 The grounding will mean inconvenience for thousands of passengers scheduled to fly on the aircraft, correspondents say. 
 
 Those aboard the stricken aircraft may also have a significant wait ahead to get to their destinations as there are so many of them to re-route. 
 
 Singapore Airlines, which operates 11 A380s with Rolls-Royce engines, says it was advised by Rolls-Royce to carry out "precautionary technical checks" on its aircraft. 
 
 "Singapore Airlines will be delaying all flights operating our A380 aircraft," spokesman Nicholas Ionides said. 
 
 Rolls-Royce said it was unclear how long its checks would take but that they were "fairly basic". It is anticipated these will be one-off checks. 
 
 The EASA confirmed it had issued an airworthiness directive on 4 August requiring an inspection of certain conditions within the Trent 900 engine. 
 
 "Some of these conditions present a potential unsafe condition to the aeroplane," it said. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mobile footage captures the moment the plane lands at Singapore 
 
 EASA communications officer Jeremie Teahan told BBC World News that one of its experts was en route to Singapore to take part in the investigation. 
 
 Rolls-Royce said it was working with its customers and analysing the data, adding: "This is at a very early stage and it would be inappropriate to draw any conclusions at this time." 
 
 Air France and Emirates use the GP7200 engine built by a consortium called Engine Alliance. The airlines say they have no plans to ground their fleets. 
 
 Bad timing 
 
 This incident is a worrying development for Qantas, an airline which prides itself on an exemplary safety record. 
 
 For the European manufacturer Airbus, the timing of this incident could hardly have come at a worse time, reports the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris, as the Chinese President Hu Jintao is in Paris to complete negotiations for a new order of Airbus A350 and A330 passenger planes. 
 
 The closest the airliner has come to a similar incident was in September 2009, when a Singapore Airlines A380 turned around in mid-flight and returned to Paris after one of its four engines failed. 
 
 The A380, which made its maiden flight in 2007, is the flagship of the European aviation giant's fleet. 
 
 The result of a long and costly research programme, it made its first commercial flight in 2007. It is the world's largest passenger airliner, a double-decker which can carry up to 800 people - though Qantas A380s are set up to carry about 450.
– Qantas airlines has grounded all of its A380 super-jumbo jets after one of the planes shed debris and was forced to make an emergency landing in Singapore this morning shortly after take-off, the BBC reports. Witnesses on a nearby Indonesian island say they heard an explosion and found debris from the plane on the ground. "I heard a big explosion and saw a commercial passenger plane flying low in the distance with smoke on one of its wings," said a local resident. "The debris started falling on my house." Nobody was injured in the incident, and the A380 landed safely with three of its four engines still working, said an airline spokeswoman. Qantas has never had a fatal airliner accident. An exploding oxygen bottle blew a large hole in the side of a Qantas plane two years ago, but no one was killed.