Passengers celebrated after plane touched ground, but while some were terrified, others had been unaware a huge hole had been found in one of the engine cowlings
Passengers on board in Australia celebrated after it returned to ground, but some were unaware that the aircraft had a huge hole in one of its engines, according to one person on the plane. One of the aircraft’s engines was damaged after take-off from Sydney’s international airport on Sunday evening and the plane had to land shortly afterwards. The flight had been bound for Shanghai. Zheng Meng, an Australian-based Chinese who was on board the plane, said she heard a loud noise soon after the aircraft took off at about 8.30pm on Sunday. Passengers were calm, thinking the situation was not serious, Zhang wrote on the social media platform Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. “After landing at the airport, everybody applauded and some foreign passengers asked for beer to celebrate, ” she wrote. “I didn’ t feel bad while sitting in the plane, ” she wrote. “After reading the news report, I think I’ m just so lucky!” A passenger told Australian broadcaster Channel Seven that another passenger sitting by the window could immediately see something was wrong. “The Chinese fellow … obviously saw what was going on because he was waving frantically to the staff to come and look at the window, ” the passenger said. “There were only about three of four English-speaking people on the plane and the majority of announcements were made in Chinese.
