7 injured as turbulence hits Qantas A380

SYDNEY – Seven passengers were injured and four needed treatment in hospital after a Qantas A380 flight from London to Singapore was rattled by strong turbulence, the Australian airline said on Sunday.

The Airbus superjumbo was three hours from Singapore when it hit a storm over Indian airspace early on Saturday and encountered “severe turbulence”, a Qantas spokeswoman said.

“Seven passengers were impacted, four of them were taken to hospital on arrival in Singapore. They’ve all since been discharged and cleared to fly,” she said.

They mostly suffered bruising and had been out of their seats when the air pocket hit, she added.

“The aircraft was assessed, there’s no damage and it’s scheduled to arrive (in Sydney) at 9 o’clock this evening.”

The incident extended a run of misfortune for Qantas’s A380 fleet. One of the airline’s double-decker planes suffered a mid-air engine explosion after take-off from Singapore in November 2010. The plane landed safely.

The same Qantas plane was last week announced to be one of several A380s in operation by airlines to have had small cracks on their wings. Both Airbus and the carriers said there was no safety issue.