Fuel problems ground all Qantas A380s

Fuel system problems forced Qantas to temporarily ground all three of its new flagship Airbus A380s.

A fuel leak was found in an A380 scheduled to fly from London to Melbourne on Monday (local time).

The flight was delayed by more than 12 hours as engineers struggled to fix the problem.

Passengers were eventually transferred to a Boeing 747 which is expected to arrive in Melbourne tonight.

The A380 has since been fixed and is on its way back to Australia.

Qantas then grounded its remaining two A380s in Sydney due to fuel tank indication problems.

Both have been fixed and one will fly to Singapore and on to London tonight.

The federal secretary of the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association, Steve Purvinas, has congratulated Qantas for acting swiftly.

"We believe that Qantas has certainly done the right thing by finding a problem and immediately taking the steps necessary to fix it," he said.

- RADIO AUSTRALIA