Re: Sat QF25 MEL-AKL-LAX age.com.au
'Loud bang': Qantas in new safety scare
Hamish Townsend
February 7, 2009 - 3:57PM
Australia's troubled national carrier Qantas has suffered another blow with a flight leaving Melbourne forced to turn back after experiencing "technical issues" shortly after take-off.
Flight QF25 from Melbourne to Los Angeles left Tullamarine at about 1pm today and was still climbing when passengers heard what they described as a loud bang.
"We were still going up when we heard this really loud bang and the plane started to level out," passenger Cormac Lally said.
"Not long after, the pilot came on the speaker and said we're going to turn back. It was pretty full-on."
The latest incident occurs in the same week Qantas was forced to sack an unqualified employee who had carried out critical maintenance work on its fleet of aircraft.
It also follows a horror 2008 in which the airline uncovered another fake engineer and had a variety of mid-air incidents.
A spokeswoman for Qantas this afternoon confirmed the plane was forced to return to Melbourne, but said there was "no safety issue and no emergency".
Mr Lally said a loudspeaker announcement after landing said the B747/400 was "unserviceable".
The spokeswoman said the airline was sending a replacement aircraft from Sydney.
"A replacement aircraft is due to leave shortly after midnight tonight, Melbourne time," the spokeswoman said.
Passengers from the flight have been put up in a hotel within Tullamarine Airport.