Qantas plane in engine drama

Published: 06/02/07

A Qantas Airways Boeing 747 with more than 270 passengers on board was forced to turn back to Sydney when one of the engines failed after takeoff. Passengers were shaken by the incident, which involved a small explosion in one of the engines, but there were not reported injuries despite the plane undergoing several course corrections in mid air.

Cabin crew passed out ice cream and snacks to relax passengers before the crippled plane made a dramatic landing at Sydney, where after a short delay they were shepherded onto another plane and departed on their flight to Los Angeles six hours behind schedule.

Witnesses on the ground described the moment when a loud bang was heard and a trail of flames were seen behind the plane as terrifying.

Although a spokesman at Qantas described the incident as trivial and common, claiming that it was an occurrence similar to a car backfiring. However, this latest incident comes on the back of several other safety scares at the airline, which recently closed two of its maintenance bases and outsourced routine maintenance jobs to India to save money.

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