Qantas flight aborted in mid-flight

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Qantas flight aborted in mid-flight

Source: AAP | Published: Tuesday June 6, 2:29 PM

A Qantas jet with 123 passengers on board was forced to abort its trip and return to Sydney today after a power surge in an engine, the airline said.

The Boeing 767-300 had just taken off from Sydney, bound for Shanghai, when the aircraft experienced a momentary surge, an airline spokeswoman said.

The plane could have continued on to its destination but the captain chose to turn around, she said.

'The aircraft landed with both engines operating normally so it was just for a moment that the power surge affected the left engine,' she said.

'He (the captain) elected to return to the ground just as a precaution so the engineers could take a look at the engine.'

Qantas Flight 187 took off from Sydney airport shortly after 10am and experienced difficulty only moments later.

The 123 passengers on board may have heard a popping noise as the aircraft 'cleared the flow of air through its engines', the spokeswoman said.

'It was only just for a short moment that there was a power surge ... it doesn't mean that there's a loss of power at all,' she said.

Engineers were examining the plane and the passengers had been transferred to another aircraft for their flight to Shanghai, the spokeswoman said.

The captain's decision to turn around was because of Qantas' 'safety first' policy, she said.

The incident is the latest in a long list of problems affecting the company's aircraft.

http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/0006/06/A41632-2000Jun6.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 06, 2000


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