Fuel pump defect on A380

Singapore Airlines said Tuesday an A380 superjumbo flight was canceled due to a fuel pump defect, the first major technical glitch to ground the world's largest passenger jet.

Singapore Airlines was the first carrier in the world to operate the double-decker aircraft. The carrier said the fuel pump problem was detected when the plane's engine was started ahead of departure Monday night on a flight from Singapore to Sydney.

"Airbus and our own engineers have dedicated teams to try to address these issues quickly, but last night's fuel pump defect took much longer to fix," Singapore Airlines said in an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press.

The airline said it had to switch to using a Boeing 747-400, which seats fewer people than the Airbus jet, because a replacement of the fuel pump failed to solve the problem. The company's second A380 could not be used as it was undergoing maintenance.