SYDNEY (AP) - Australia's Qantas Airways says it has temporarily grounded one of its A380 superjumbos after discovering dozens of hairline cracks in its wings.

Qantas insisted Wednesday that the 36 cracks posed no threat to safety and said they were different from the types of cracks that manufacturer Airbus found in the wings of two jets last month. That discovery prompted Europe's air safety authority to order the inspection of nearly a third of the world's A380s.

Airline workers found the cracks in the Qantas plane after the aircraft hit severe turbulence on a flight from London to Singapore. Qantas says the cracks were not related to the turbulence and were linked to an Airbus manufacturing issue.

The plane is expected to be back in the air within a week.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)