A Hong Kong bound Cathay Pacific flight was reportedly forced to make an emergency landing shortly after take-off from Perth overnight. All the 254 passengers and the 13 crew members are said to be safe.
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“We had to wait in the plane on the tarmac for two hours before being able to leave the plane and all passengers had to pay for an Indonesia entry visa to collect our baggage which we were told could be reimbursed later”.
Joel Sirna, a passenger on the flight, said he and others were woken up by a loud noise and then shuddering off the Bali coast.
“All the lights went out, I looked to the window and we could see flames and sparks by the wing and the motor was on fire”, Cirna said on the radio station, the West Australian newspaper reported.
“Will we die?” one passenger asked another on this flight from Singapore to Jakarta after an engine burst into flame mid-flight.
“There were a few people that were pretty shaken”.
At one stage in the flight Sirna said all the power in the cabin went off.
Cirna said it took 10 or 15 minutes to get to the ground, where they were met with the reassuring sight of emergency vehicles pulling up, lights flashing.
Sirna says that he and his companions have had other flights booked for them and will be leaving the island at midnight tonight, 24 hours after first leaving Perth.
However, in a statement, Cathay later denied there was a fire onboard.
All 251 passengers aboard the flight, which was supposed to be travelling from Perth, Australia, to Hong Kong, were left shaken but uninjured.
“The engine was shut down and emergency landing was declared”, Cathay said in a statement, adding that the aircraft landed safely in Denpasar.
An airline spokeswoman said in response that the airline had received the letter and was engaging directly with the pilots to deal with the matters as the safety of passengers and crew was the airline’s first priority.
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Cathay Pacific extended its apologies to passengers for the inconvenience and is investigating the incident.
