Singapore Airlines (SIA), the world's second-largest carrier by market value, said on Wednesday it has changed an engine on one of its Airbus A380 aircraft, which failed and forced the superjumbo to return to the city-state.

The engine, made by Rolls-Royce Plc, was shut down shortly after takeoff as the plane was climbing to reach cruising altitude on a Tuesday flight from Singapore to Hong Kong with 368 passengers on board.

"An engine change was carried out on the aircraft and we are looking into the incident with Rolls-Royce and Airbus," SIA spokesman Nicholas Ionides said in an email.

Rolls-Royce and Airbus, a unit of European aerospace and defence group EADS, came into the spotlight late last year when an engine on an Airbus A380 aircraft operated by Qantas exploded after takeoff and forced the passenger jet to return to Singapore.

Rolls-Royce and Qantas have reached an out-of-court commercial settlement over the incident, which would add AU$95 million (US$100.6 million) to the carrier's 2011 pre-tax profit. Qantas has called off legal action against Rolls-Royce.