The call comes a week after a Canadian Airbus pilot was forced to fly his plane for more than 100 miles without power before making a forced landing in the Azores.

UK group Rolls-Royce made the Trent 700 series engines fitted to the plane, and has told all aircraft manufacturers using it that a crack in the fuel line - possible as a result of chafing against another pipe - is the most likely cause of the problem.

Airbus, which is owned by the European Aerospace, Defence and Space consortium (EADS) and the UK's BAe Systems in an 80/20 split, has now ordered inspections, which should take about 30 minutes, to be made within 72 hours.

Powerless

The trigger for the checks was the failure of both engines on an Airbus A330-200 operated by Canada's Air Transat and flying from Toronto to Lisbon in Portugal.