Singapore, Feb. 19 (AP): Singapore Airlines today said an A380 superjumbo flight was cancelled because of a fuel pump defect, the first technical glitch to ground the world’s largest passenger jet.

The carrier said the fuel pump problem was detected when the plane’s engine was started ahead of departure last 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 emailed statement.

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. Of the 418 passengers on the flight, about 70 had to be transferred to alternative flights.