Qantas plane develops mid-air snag, lands safely at Bangkok

Melbourne: An Australian Qantas airlines aircraft with over 300 passengers on board had a close shave after it developed a technical problem mid-air and had to return to Bangkok shortly after taking off from the Thai capital. [caption id=“attachment_109092” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A uniquely painted Quantas Boeing 747-438. A Quantas Bangkok-Sydney flight developed mid-air snags and landed safely in the Thai capital on Monday. Reuters”]  [/caption] The pilot of Sydney-bound Flight QF2 manually shut down one engine when he heard a loud bang and excessive shuddering 10 minutes after it took off from Bangkok at about 10:30pm (local time), according to an ABC report. The plane carrying 356 passengers landed safely in Bangkok and engineers were now investigating the problem. Qantas said the flight will be re-scheduled as soon as possible and passengers were being put on flights with other airlines, the report said. “There was some white sparks shooting out of the engine and then they informed us of what was going on, that the engine had been shut down and we were returning to Bangkok,” a passenger was quoted as saying by news agency AAP. More than 60,000 Qantas passengers have been affected by a series of rolling strikes by engineers and ground crews. The airline last week canceled 400 domestic flights over the next month, blaming the disruptions on the strikes. Reuters