A Qantas A380 superjumbo made a dramatic emergency landing in Singapore on Thursday after experiencing engine trouble over Indonesia, in the first mid-air emergency involving the giant Airbus plane.

The double-decker plane, which had taken off from Singapore bound for Sydney carrying 433 passengers, dumped fuel over Indonesia before returning to the city-state’s Changi Airport trailing smoke.

Six fire engines swarmed the A380 on landing, spraying liquid on it.

Plane debris including what appeared to be part of the tail of a Qantas jet was found in the Indonesian town of Batam, after a mid-air explosion was heard on the ground.

A spokesman for Australia’s Qantas Airways sid the plane was carrying 433 passengers and 26 crew and there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Qantas, which has never suffered a fatal crash in its 90-year history, said earlier there had “definitely” not been a crash involving one of its planes over Indonesia.

The A380’s very first commercial flight operated by Singapore Airlines was on the same Singapore-Sydney route in October 2007.

Since then, fuel and computer glitches have grounded several A380s and at least one Air France flight was forced to turn around and land in New York after problems with its navigation system in November 2009.