AGL 40.30 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (0.25%)
AIRLINK 128.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.51 (-0.4%)
BOP 6.38 Decreased By ▼ -0.22 (-3.33%)
CNERGY 4.12 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (2.23%)
DCL 8.69 Increased By ▲ 0.24 (2.84%)
DFML 42.30 Increased By ▲ 1.05 (2.55%)
DGKC 88.10 Increased By ▲ 1.10 (1.26%)
FCCL 33.70 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (1.05%)
FFBL 65.95 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.08%)
FFL 10.66 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.14%)
HUBC 113.00 Increased By ▲ 2.30 (2.08%)
HUMNL 15.82 Increased By ▲ 0.59 (3.87%)
KEL 4.78 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
KOSM 7.93 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (1.28%)
MLCF 42.00 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (0.24%)
NBP 61.00 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (0.83%)
OGDC 189.10 Increased By ▲ 6.30 (3.45%)
PAEL 25.59 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (0.91%)
PIBTL 7.26 Increased By ▲ 1.00 (15.97%)
PPL 149.30 Increased By ▲ 1.49 (1.01%)
PRL 25.00 Increased By ▲ 0.44 (1.79%)
PTC 16.40 Increased By ▲ 0.16 (0.99%)
SEARL 70.31 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-0.27%)
TELE 7.35 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.68%)
TOMCL 36.14 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-0.44%)
TPLP 8.05 Increased By ▲ 0.20 (2.55%)
TREET 16.25 Increased By ▲ 0.95 (6.21%)
TRG 51.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-0.39%)
UNITY 27.31 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.15%)
WTL 1.27 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (3.25%)
BR100 9,929 Increased By 87.1 (0.88%)
BR30 30,514 Increased By 477.5 (1.59%)
KSE100 93,226 Increased By 705.2 (0.76%)
KSE30 28,966 Increased By 179.3 (0.62%)

SYDNEY: A Qantas plane made an emergency landing Friday due to a “contained engine failure” soon after taking off from Sydney Airport, sparking a grassfire on a nearby runway and causing several flights to be diverted.

The Qantas flight, QF520, was bound for Brisbane and was circling for a “short period of time” before landing safely at Sydney Airport, Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano said in the statement.

“Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine and confirmed it was a contained engine failure,” the airline said.

“While customers would have heard a loud bang, there was not an explosion.”

Airservices Australia, the government’s aviation regulator, said the engine failure caused “a grass area adjacent to the runway to catch fire”, which was swiftly extinguished by firefighters.

The Airservices’ National Operations Management Centre enacted a 47-minute ground stop at Sydney Airport to ensure the plane could land as quickly as possible, the regulator said in a statement.

There were no injuries and the affected runway was expected to be operational later Friday evening, it added.

Plane passenger Georgina Lewis was onboard the flight and said she heard a “bang”.

Australia’s Qantas hits record high as Jefferies lifts price target

“One of the engines appeared to have gone. The pilot came on 10 minutes later to explain that they had a problem with a right-hand engine on take-off,” she told local outlet Channel Nine.

Another passenger Mark Willacy, a journalist with Australia’s national broadcaster ABC, said the plane struggled to get airborne following the “loud bang” noise.

“That big bang as the wheels were leaving the ground and the shudder, that was like nothing I have ever felt,” he told ABC.

“When we landed there was a lot of applause and cheering amongst the passengers.”

Tobiano of Qantas said his staff were “highly trained” to respond to such emergency situations.

“We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support,” he said in the statement.

“We will also be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue,” he added.

Customers were being moved to alternate flights, Qantas said.

Eleven domestic flights were cancelled and four diverted to other airports, a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.

Comments

200 characters