SINGAPORE: The inaugural Los Angeles-Singapore flight by Singapore Airlines (SIA) had to make a U-turn after an error with the engine oil meter readings.
SQ37 departed Los Angeles at 11.24pm on Thursday and landed back in Los Angeles at 1.33am, said an SIA spokesman.
It turned back when it was above the Pacific Ocean.
“A decision was made to return to Los Angeles about 40 minutes into the flight after the flight crew detected an error with the engine oil meter readings,” he said.
After it landed, engineers inspected the aircraft and declared it serviceable, he added.
It eventually departed from Los Angeles at 4.41am on Saturday and arrived in Singapore yesterday afternoon.
There were 141 passengers on board the flight, the spokesman said.
The Los Angeles-Singapore service uses the new Airbus 350-900ULR (ultra-long-range) aircraft, and SIA is the first airline in the world to operate the plane.
The airline announced the non-stop flights between Singapore and Los Angeles in July this year as part of plans to boost services to the United States.
Daily operations will start from Friday when an additional A350-900ULR aircraft will be used for this service.
From Dec 7, a further three services per week will be added, increasing the total non-stop flights between Singapore and Los Angeles to 10 times per week.
An SIA spokesman said there would be no changes to the plans despite the incident. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network
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