Qantas plane lands safely in Sydney after engine failure

SYDNEY – A Qantas Airways flight bound for Brisbane suffered an engine failure after take-off on Nov 8 and circled for a short period before returning safely to Sydney Airport, the Australian airline said.

Passengers heard a loud bang from one of the aircraft’s two engines, the nation’s media reported.

A journalist with national broadcaster ABC, who was on the flight, said there was a “sharp shudder” on the plane after the loud noise.

“It was apparent something had happened with one of the engines, then the plane seemed to labour to get off the ground or get any altitude,” Mr Mark Willacy said.

Qantas did not disclose the number of passengers or crew aboard the narrow-body plane, which its website states offers 12 business and 162 economy seats.

The airline said its engineers conducted a preliminary inspection and confirmed a contained engine failure, meaning the internal engine parts stayed within the protective housing designed to keep them safely enclosed.

Uncontained engine failures, where engine fragments fly out of this housing, can result in serious damage to the main body of an aircraft.

Qantas Flight QF520 took off at 12.35pm (9.35am Singapore time), circled a few times and diverted to land in Sydney, tracking data from Flightradar24 showed.

The aircraft’s departure coincided with a grass fire breaking out alongside a parallel runway that was brought under control, the airport said.

“It’s not clear at this stage if the two incidents are linked, and investigations are continuing,” it added.

Qantas said the plane landed safely after appropriate procedures were conducted, and added that it would be investigating the engine issue.

The plane is a 19-year-old Boeing 737-800, according to Flightradar24. That model is powered by engines from CFM International, a joint venture between GE Aerospace and France’s Safran.

Twin-engine passenger planes of this sort are designed to be able to be flown on one engine in an emergency.

“We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers, and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support,” Qantas chief pilot Richard Tobiano said.

By the afternoon of Nov 8, Sydney Airport said all its runways had reopened after the parallel runway was closed for inspection, but passenger delays might continue into the evening.

On the morning of Nov 8, a technical outage crippled all of Australia’s major airports, leading to long queues at international terminals after the disruption of automated kiosks for identity and facial recognition, the authorities said.

The issue was resolved by midday, according to the Australian Border Force. REUTERS