A Lufthansa Airbus A380 on route from Munich International Airport to Hong Kong International Airport had to return to its point of origin after suffering engine problems shortly into the flight.

Lufthansa flight number LH-730 had just stopped its climb out of Munich at 26,000 feet, some 90 miles southeast of the Czech Republic capital of Prague when the engine incident occurred. According to the Aviation Herald, there was an issue with the right-side outbound number four engine.

At the moment, no information is available as to what was wrong with the Engine Alliance GP7200 engine. However, it was serious enough that the pilot contacted Air Traffic Control to advise them of the problem.

The Lufthansa jet continued to maintain an altitude of 26,000 feet as it dumped fuel before returning to Munich 1hr and 45mins later. A replacement A380 was deployed by Lufthansa and departed Germany for China some 18 hours later.

An Emirates Airlines A380 suffered an engine failure a week earlier

This latest engine incident occurred yesterday July 27th and comes a week after a similar incident involving an Emirates Airlines A380.

Emirates flight number EK242 was on route from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) to Dubai International Airport (DXB). Just 20 minutes into the flight, passengers heard a noise coming from the left side of the aircraft.

The Emirates jet was at a similar altitude to the Lufthansa A380 at 25,000 feet when the crew called Air Traffic Control to inform them that they had suffered an engine failure. As with the Lufthansa jet, the crew aboard the Emirates A380 dumped fuel and returned to the departure airport which, in this case, was Toronto Pearson.

What caused the Lufthansa engine problem?

Simple Flying wrote to Lufthansa for comment, but so far the Star Alliance member has not gotten back to us.

Comments on the Aviation Herald are speculating that the ground crew may have failed to properly secure the oil filler cap. There is a safety device installed for such a situation, but that too can fail. We point out this is just speculation and we do not know the cause of the incident.

Engine Alliance GP7200

Originally intended to power Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the General Alliance GP7200 is a turbofan jet engine manufactured by General Electric and Pratt & Whitney and is one of the options available for the Airbus A380.