Louis Gallois, chief executive of EADS and an aerospace man to his very core, must think that the Franco-German group and its aircraft making subsidiary Airbus are cursed.

In little more than two weeks he was planning to be in Toulouse to hand over the first A380 superjumbo aircraft to Singapore Airlines, in a ceremony he might have hoped would finally close the door on the industrial and managerial problems that have dogged Airbus for two years.