Qantas flight makes emergency landing in Auckland after cargo fire alert

Signal as much as Simon Calder’s free journey e mail for knowledgeable recommendation and money-saving reductions

Get Simon Calder’s Journey e mail

Get Simon Calder’s Journey e mail

A Qantas flight from Sydney to Auckland was pressured to make an emergency touchdown on Friday after pilots obtained warning of a possible fireplace within the cargo maintain.

The Boeing 737, working as flight QFA141, declared a mayday whereas flying over the Tasman Sea. A mayday name is a global misery sign requiring full emergency help.

The plane landed with out incident on the Auckland airport shortly earlier than noon native time.

Emergency providers in New Zealand mentioned they have been alerted at about 11.05am native time following stories of smoke onboard the flight.

The airport confirmed the aircraft touched down safely at 11.47am and was met by 16 fireplace vehicles and a number of ambulances. No passengers required any medical therapy.

The airline mentioned in a press release that the crew had been responding to “intermittent indication about potential fireplace within the cargo maintain” for an hour earlier than arrival.

“Our engineers will examine the plane to find out the trigger,” a spokesman mentioned, including that preliminary checks advised there was no fireplace within the entrance cargo maintain.

There have been 156 passengers onboard, Qantas mentioned, including that each one disembarked safely.

open picture in gallery

The airport mentioned emergency crews have been positioned on standby after the plane made the mayday name.

“The airfield is now returning to regular however there could also be some slight delays for departing and arriving flights,” it mentioned in a press release.

Among the many passengers was SBS World Information presenter Janice Petersen. She mentioned that the flight “gave the impression to be going comparatively easily” till the ultimate hour.

“I noticed cabin crew wanting involved and rapidly shifting in the direction of the again of the aircraft as instructed by the pilot. It appeared uncommon,” she mentioned.

Passengers weren’t initially advised of any issue, Ms Petersen mentioned, however the pilot later made an announcement “acknowledging smoke detected within the cargo”.

He warned that fireside crews would assess the plane after touchdown and talked about that escape slides could possibly be deployed if wanted.

“He flagged the potential for utilizing escape slides,” Ms Peterson recalled. “In the end, it was all cleared inside about 10 minutes with 5 fireplace crews on the scene, and dealt with professionally with a minimal fuss.”

The Hato St John ambulance service, which had dispatched a number of models to the scene, confirmed that its help was not required by any of the folks on board the flight.

The incident got here in the identical week that one other Qantas flight was pressured to divert.

On Monday, flight QF1889 from Darwin to Cairns returned to its departure airport half an hour into the journey after the pilots obtained a pressurisation warning. The flight, operated by Alliance Aviation, a provider which Qantas holds a stake in, descended 20,000 toes in minutes earlier than touchdown safely.

A spokesperson acknowledged that it will have been an “unsettling” expertise for the passengers however careworn that the plane didn’t “plunge”.

Friday’s false alarm provides to a sequence of operational challenges confronted by Qantas in current months because the airline works to revive confidence following the pandemic downturn.

Security regulators and investigators are anticipated to assessment the incident as soon as the airline completes its inspection.

Regardless of the dramatic scenes on the Auckland airport, Qantas mentioned that passenger security had not been compromised.