Plane lands after engine fire (LA bound jet)

news.com.au ^ | 3 February 2007

[Aussie Dasher]

A LOS Angeles-bound Qantas airliner which had flames jetting out of one engine has landed safely at Sydney airport.

The Boeing 747 Flight QF149 with 274 people on board was forced to turn back after taking off at 11.58am (AEDT) today, Qantas said.

It landed at 1.20pm (AEDT) after dumping fuel and circling the city's northern beaches, a Qantas spokesman Lloyd Quartermaine said.

He said flames had been seen coming out of one of the engines, but there was no explosion and passengers were not at risk.

"The engine didn't explode," Mr Quartermaine said.

"At this stage we believe it was an engine surge which can lead to a flame jetting out the back of it, but it is not an engine explosion.

"We will be thoroughly inspecting it. It was a flame-out of the aircraft that can be caused when there's an engine surge, but it's not a safety issue of the aircraft," he said.

[Aussie Dasher]

I'm flying QANTAS next week...(gulp)...

[Larry Lucido]

All airlines have crashed at one time or another. That doesn't mean that they are not safe.

Quantas.

Quantas?

Quantas never crashed.

Quantas?

Never crashed.

[Aussie Dasher]

Yep. QANTAS has the best safety record of any airline in the world.

[DB]

"but it's not a safety issue of the aircraft"

Right...

So why didn't it continue to its destination then?

[Aussie Dasher]

Yeah, I think this bloke might be full of shiite...

[appeal2]

If this was British Airways, it would have. They don't let little things like engine flareouts get in their way.

[RightOnline]

I was on a flight to Dallas last week.......had to do an inflight engine shutdown. Happens.

[boomop1]

QANTAS never crashes as prt Rain Man.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

They probably didn't know what it was and id the prudent thing. It's what I would want.

[sgtbono2002]

***after dumping fuel and circling the city's northern beaches, **

Nice place to dump it.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Did it fly any differently as a result? It would freak me out!

[AZRepublican]

> So why didn't it continue to its destination then?

Would you feel comfortable on a transatlantic flight with visible flames coming out of an engine?

[CPOSharky]

That was proabably a trans-pacific flight.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Quantas(sic)?

Quantas(si) never crashed.

Incorrect, urban legend. Qantas has had several crashes over its history.

Date	Location	Airplane	Reg.	Description	Aboard	Fatalities
March 24, 1927	Tambo, Australia	de Havilland DH-9C	G-AUED	Not recorded	3	3
November 15, 1934	Longreach, Australia	de Havilland DH-86	VH-USG	Not recorded	4	4
February 20, 1942	Brisbane, Australia	de Havilland DH-86	VH-USE	Crash (lost control after take-off)	9	9
April 22, 1943	Port Moresby, New Guinea	Short S-23 Flying Boat	VH-ADU	Crash (failed emergency landing in sea)	13	13
November 26, 1943	Port Moresby, New Guinea	Lockheed L-18-56 Lodestar	VH-CAB	Crash (struck hill after take-off)	15	15
October 11, 1944	Sydney, Australia	Short S-23 Flying Boat	VH-ABB	Crash (failed landing)	30	1
July 16, 1951	Lae, Papua New Guinea	de Havilland Drover II	VH-EBQ	Crash (center propeller failure)	7	7

Qantas Flight 1 accident gallery

Qantas Flight 1 runway overrun accident

[A.A. Cunningham]

QANTAS accident at JFK

[A.A. Cunningham]

(si)(sic)

[Larry Lucido]

I figured that was probably the case. :-)

Still love that dialogue from Rain Man, though.

[LukeL]

Beat me to it!

[LukeL]

Actually those were all prop planes, Qantas has never had a jet crash.

[RightOnline]

Nooooooo not at all. Plane had two engines; designed to fly on one JUST fine; no sweat. I'll add that I'm also a former pilot in the USAF (flew heavies), so you learn not to sweat the small stuff. :)