An airplane’s engine has exploded shortly after takeoff at Sydney Airport forcing an emergency landing and sparking a massive grassfire.
It’s understood Qantas flight QF520 had just taken off from Sydney to Brisbane shortly before 1pm when one of the engines failed.
The plane was forced to circle Botany bay before making an emergency landing, with the engine setting ablaze a huge grassfire.
Huge clouds of smoke could be seen billowing above the airport as NSW Fire Service crews fought to get the blaze under control.
All flights in and out of the airport have reportedly been halted.
Georgina Lewis, a producer for the Today Show, one of the passengers on board the flight spoke out about the incident.
‘We had just taken off when we heard a bang. One of the engines appeared to have failed,’ she told Channel 9.
‘There was silence on board and for a while it felt like we weren’t gaining much altitude.
‘There were some worried looks throughout the cabin.
Huge clouds of billowing smoke could be seen above the airport as NSW Fire Service crews raced to the scene
All flights in and out of the airport have reportedly been halted
It’s understood Qantas flight QF520 had just taken off from Sydney to Brisbane when the fire erupted
‘About ten minutes later, the pilot came on to reassure us about safety, explaining that they’d had an issue with the right engine on takeoff and had to shut it down for safety reasons.
‘I assume they then needed to notify everyone on the ground.
‘So, we circled south of Sydney over the water for quite some time until we were finally able to land safely on one engine—there was a lot of cheering on board, I can tell you that.
‘I’ll be honest—I have a fear of flying, so this was not my happiest moment in the air when I heard that loud bang. But I’m just so grateful we’re back on land. Kudos to Qantas for their handling of the situation.’
It comes as the airport, and others across the country, were ground to a halt on Friday by a national tech outage.
This is a breaking story, more to come.
