A plane has made at emergency landing at Sydney Airport after an engine failure that might have sparked a major fire next to a runway.
A Qantas 737 bound for Brisbane was forced to make a return to the airport after passengers reported hearing a bang during take-off early on Friday afternoon.
Smoke and flames were visible near a runway after the incident.
Qantas said the plane experienced a “contained engine failure” and the aircraft safely returned to the runway after circling for a short time.
“Our pilots are highly trained to handle situations like this and the aircraft landed safely after the appropriate procedures were conducted,” chief pilot Richard Tobiano said.
“We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support.”
Nine News producer Georgina Lewis, who was aboard the aircraft, said she heard a loud bang before passengers were told an engine malfunction would force a return to the airport.
“We were going down the runway when we heard a loud bang … about 10 minutes later the pilot came on board and said they had a problem with the right-hand engine on take-off and they were forced to shut it down for safety reasons,” she told Sydney radio 2GB.
Sydney Airport confirmed a grass fire had erupted near the runway.
“This departure of aircraft coincided with a grass fire along the eastern side of the airport’s parallel runway,” a spokesperson said.
“It’s not clear at this stage if the two incidents are linked and investigations are continuing.”
Sydney Airport said a full inspection of its parallel runway would be undertaken.
While the main runway remained operational, passengers were advised to expect some delays.
Emergency response teams from the Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting Service and Fire and Rescue NSW responded to the scene to contain the fire, with no injuries reported.
Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry said the fire was “pretty well-contained on that peninsula on that runway” an hour after the incident.
“We’ve got a number of fire trucks on scene working to contain or extinguish a grass fire, a pretty large grass fire adjacent to the third runway,” he said.
“Fortunately due to the layout it is contained, it’s not going to go anywhere.
“But we do need to get this fire out so the airport can resume its operations again.”
Footage from the scene showed smoke billowing from the runway.
