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Posted at 10:51 AM ET, 06/20/2011

Airbus A380 grounded; Korean Air Lines to the rescue


The damaged right-hand wing-tip of the Airbus A380 is seen on the tarmac during the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget airport, June 20. (Pascal Rossignol - Reuters)
Airbus’s star jet was grounded Sunday after clipping a wing on a taxiway structure, forcing the European jetmaker to cancel demonstration flights it had planned at the Paris Air Show. The A380 superjumbo collided with a building at the Le Bourget airport, where the air show is taking place.

The A380 collision was the latest in an embarrassing string of incidents at the air show for Airbus, which was forced to pull its military transport carrier A400M out of displays because of an issue with its gearbox.

But Monday, Korean Air Lines jumped to the rescue, offering Airbus one of its A380s to fly.

During the demonstrations, Airbus’s own double-decker aircraft sat sadly idle with its right wing-tip covered, hiding the damage, according to the Wall Street Journal.


Earlier this year, an Air France-operated A380 clipped a Bombardier Inc. regional jet’s rear tail while it was on the ground at New York's John F. Kennedy airport. The jet spun 90 degrees in the process.

Watch a video of that collision below:

A380 is the world's largest jetliner, with a wingspan of more than 260 feet and a capacity of more than 500.

By  |  10:51 AM ET, 06/20/2011

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