Singapore Airlines
© Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images Singapore Airlines said power was restored after the pilots ‘followed operational procedures’.

Airlines announces investigation after Airbus A330-300 carrying 194 people suffered engine failures travelling from Singapore to Shanghai


A Singapore Airlines Airbus with 182 passengers and 12 crew on board lost power to both engines en route to Shanghai - falling 3,962m (13,000ft) - the airline said on Wednesday as it announced an investigation into the incident.

The Airbus A330-300 flight on 23 May "encountered bad weather at 39,000 feet (11.9 km) about three and a half hours after departure" from Singapore, the airline said in a statement.

"Both engines experienced a temporary loss of power and the pilots followed operational procedures to restore normal operation of the engines," it said.

"The flight continued to Shanghai and touched down uneventfully at 10.56pm local time," it said.

It added that the Airbus A330-300 plane's two Rolls-Royce engines "were thoroughly inspected and tested upon arrival in Shanghai with no anomalies detected".

"We are reviewing the incident with Rolls-Royce and Airbus," Singapore Airlines said.

In a Twitter post late on Tuesday, Flightradar24 said the flight, codenamed SQ836, "lost power on both engines & 13,000 feet before power returned".


In a subsequent post, it said the plane "lost both engines during the cruise" while flying through a "huge storm", pinpointing an area in the South China Sea off China's southern coast where the incident occurred.

Singapore Airlines, Asia's third largest carrier by market value, currently has 29 Airbus A330-300s in its passenger fleet.

It also has a fleet of 19 Airbus A380-800 superjumbos.

The airline, along with its subsidiaries SilkAir, Scoot, and Tiger Airways, flies to 119 destinations across 35 countries.

Last week Airbus warned of a technical bug potentially affecting the engines of its A400M military planes that was discovered during an internal test after one crashed in Spain.