A Qantas flight on its way from Sydney to Brisbane was forced to make an emergency landing after passengers heard a “loud bang”.
The plane’s right engine failed on take off as it departed from Sydney airport at 12:15 pm on Friday. It’s reported the plane returned safely at about 1:00pm and no one was injured.
New South Wales Fire and Rescue has been working to contain a grassfire next to a runway at the airport.
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A Sydney Airport spokesperson said it’s investigating if the fire and engine malfunction are linked.
QF520 departed Sydney Airport at about 12.15pm on Friday, but returned and landed safely at about 1pm.
ABC reporter Mark Willacy was onboard the flight. He told ABC TV that just as the plane was taking off “there was a large bang and a really jolting shudder went through the plane”.
Willacy described the plane struggling to get airborne and it quickly became clear that something was “badly wrong”.
“What was more disturbing, I think, was the plane really laboured after that,” he said.
Qantas said it conducted a preliminary inspection and said it was a “contained engine failure”.
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