A grass fire has erupted at Sydney Airport after a Qantas jet had an engine malfunction just on takeoff on a flight to Brisbane.

The Qantas flight QF520 returned to Sydney airport without incident.

In a statement, Qantas said:

“Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine and confirmed it was a contained engine failure.

“While customers would have heard a loud bang, there was not an explosion.

Comments from Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano:

“One of our flights to Brisbane experienced a suspected engine failure after take-off from Sydney Airport this afternoon. After circling for a short period of time, the aircraft landed safely at Sydney Airport.

“Our pilots are highly trained to handle situations like this and the aircraft landed safely after the appropriate procedures were conducted.

“We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support.

“We will also be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue.”

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The Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell confirmed the incident and said in a statement:

“The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has commenced a transport safety investigation into the engine failure incident involving a Qantas 737 aircraft during take-off from Sydney on Friday afternoon.

“A team of transport safety investigators, with experience in aircraft maintenance, aircraft operations, material failure analysis and data recovery, has commenced the evidence collection phase of this investigation.

“At the ATSB’s request, the operator has quarantined the aircraft’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Once downloaded, information from those recorders will be analysed at the ATSB’s technical facilities in Canberra.

“Other likely investigation activities will include interviewing the flight crew, reviewing operator procedures, analysing weather information, examining any relevant engine components, and potentially attending any tear-down inspection of the engine.

“Our investigators will now work methodically to progressively establish the incident’s sequence of events and contextual information, with a view to determining contributing factors and any underlying safety issues, which will be detailed in the investigation’s final report.”

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