An engine failure forced pilots of a Quantas flight to make an emergency landing shortly after it took off from an airport in Sydney, Australia.
Passengers heard a loud bang shortly after Flight 520 from Sydney to Brisbane left the runway on Friday afternoon, the airline said in a statement, adding it was not an explosion.
Engineers concluded after a preliminary inspection and confirmed that the Boeing 737 aircraft had a limited engine failure, the statement said.
“There was a really shocking shudder that went through the plane,” passenger Mark Willacy, a journalist with Australian broadcaster ABC News, told his network, adding that he heard the loud bang just after the plane took off from Sydney airport.
“We immediately knew something was wrong,” he added. “That big bang when the wheels left the ground and the shudder – it was like nothing I’ve ever felt.”
The twin jet then “really worked” to gain altitude, he said, adding that “the one engine was really pumping it out hard to get us in the air.”
The plane took off shortly after 12:35 p.m. local time (8:35 p.m. ET Thursday), according to data from flight tracking platform FlightRadar24.
“After circling for a short period of time, the aircraft landed safely at Sydney Airport,” Qantas chief pilot Captain Richard Tobiano said in a statement.
The plane “banked a lot” as it turned around to prepare for the final descent back to Sydney, Willacy said. “It didn’t feel as stable as normal when you’re making those turns,” he added.
In a separate statement, Sydney Airport said the “departure of the aircraft coincided with a grass fire along the eastern side of the airport’s parallel runway.”
Firefighters brought this under control, the statement said, adding that it was “not clear at this stage whether the two incidents are related and investigations are continuing.”
It’s unclear whether this complicated Flight 520’s descent, but the airport said it was fully operational again at 5 p.m. local time (1 a.m. ET Friday).
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
