Qantas Airways’ engine crisis continues

SYDNEY - Qantas Airways has been plagued with more engine troubles after one of its planes carrying 234 passengers to Melbourne was forced to return to Perth.

According to the Age, the pilot decided to turn back after crewmembers reported the problem between five to 10 minutes after QF768 took off from Perth at 2.50pm on Friday.

“Soon after take-off, the flight crew detected some vibration in the left-hand engine of the Boeing 767 aircraft,” Qantas spokesman Simon Rushton said.

When asked if the mid-air explosion of a Qantas A380 Rolls Royce engine over Indonesia last week had influenced the pilot’s decision, Ruston said: “Not at all. Our flight crews are absolutely trained to respond in a very conservative way to any in-flight issues and that’s exactly what they did in this case.”

“They responded quickly, appropriately and in line with their training,” he added.

Earlier, Qantas had grounded its entire Airbus A380 fleet following the emergency landing of flight QF32 at Singapore’s Changi Airport last Thursday.

The double-decker plane, bound for Sydney from Singapore, was carrying 433 passengers and 26 crewmembers when it ran into trouble shortly after take-off.

The engine of the A380 had dramatically exploded mid-air over the Indonesian island of Batam and had to return to Changi Airport.

The incident was followed by another engine failure on a 747 jumbo, QF6, leaving Singapore airport last Friday.

Passengers were left terrified after crewmembers shouted for them to adopt the crash position when the jet was hit with engine trouble after leaving the airport.

According to reports, the aircraft ran into trouble 20 minutes after take-off when passengers heard a loud bang and saw flames or sparks coming from an engine.

QF6 immediately returned to Singapore airport and made a safe landing.

It is believed that several of the passengers were from the Airbus A380 that had made a dramatic landing the day before. (ANI)