Qantas flight makes emergency landing at Sydney airport

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A Qantas flight bound for Brisbane has made an emergency landing at Sydney airport, only shortly after taking off. It’s believed a loud bang was heard from the right engine just as the plane left the runway, and that the aircraft struggled to gain altitude before circling back.

Transcript

00:00We were sort of taxiing out to the runway and the pilot had turned onto the runway and

00:06you know given it full thrust and we were at the end of the runway literally the wheels

00:11were just taking off the ground and there was a large bang and a really jolting shudder

00:16went through the plane.

00:18We knew immediately something was wrong but what was more disturbing I think was the plane

00:23really laboured after that.

00:25You know obviously it was trying to do a full take off on one engine which it can do but

00:28it was a case of not really getting the sort of altitude you expect when you're taking

00:33off in a usual manner so it was a real struggle to get airborne and it was clear to everyone,

00:40the crew and the passengers that something was badly wrong at that point.

00:44The plane slowly got more altitude and we sort of banked to the west, we did a big loop,

00:50came back over Sydney.

00:52Obviously the pilots weren't coming on to tell us anything because they were dealing

00:55with what was going on.

00:57And then we went out over the Pacific and we did a big large bank over there and finally

01:03after 10 to 15 minutes the pilot came on and explained that something had happened to the

01:08right engine, that it was shut down, that things were under control but you know where

01:14I was, I was on the right side, I couldn't see out but there was actually a Qantas pilot

01:18in amongst us, one of the passengers and he came down with the stewardess and he was looking

01:24out trying to get a visual on the engine and then I assume that was to go back to the

01:30pilot to say what he could see and eventually I don't know whether they were dumping fuel

01:36or whatever but we got down, we landed, they took us to a part of the airport where we're

01:43away from everyone and the fire trucks came out and did a visual inspection of the engine

01:49but as we were coming in it was clear that there was some sort of fire on the runway.

01:53Now there was some sort of, a lot of smoke, a lot of fire engines and it, look let's just

01:59say that smoke and fire wasn't there when we took off, now whether it has anything to

02:02do with this engine problem or explosion or whatever it was I couldn't tell you but you

02:09know eventually we had to make a very efficient, what we call an efficient exit from the plane

02:14because the engine, the right engine was still leaking some sort of fluid but I have to say

02:19that when we landed there was a lot of applause and cheering amongst the passengers and you

02:24have to praise always the professionalism of the pilots and the crew and I have to say

02:29the passengers were all very focused, some worried looks of course but everyone's safely

02:35on the ground now.

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