Qantas plane makes emergency landing after engine explodes

A Qantas plane was forced to make an emergency landing on Thursday after one of its engines exploded, which made a hole in the wing. Shortly after departing Singapore, the A380 jet ran into trouble. The Qantas plane circled to return to Singapore's Changi Airport to make the emergency landing. No passengers or crew members were injured in the incident.

Once on the ground, the passengers onboard had to wait to disembark the plane due to a fuel leak. It was only once the passengers were safely on terra firma that they realised the extent of the damage.

Whilst the Qantas plane was still in flight, passengers heard two loud bangs. Remarkably most of the passengers remained calm. It took 90 minutes for the plane to make its emergency landing after the engine blew. In response to the incident, Qantas grounded all six of its A380 planes.

After grounding the planes, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said: "We do take our safety reputation and our safety standards unbelievably seriously. And we're not going to take any risks with passenger safety - and as a precaution, we're suspending the flights of the A380 aircraft until we're comfortable that we understand the reasons for this."

Qantas has the largest and greenest jetliners in its fleet - their A380's are double-deckers, with enough seats for up to 800 passengers. Though the airline has never experienced any fatal incidents in its 90 years of air travel, they have experienced similar incidents. Earlier this year, a Qantas plane burst two tyres when it landed in Sydney.

The Qantas plane that made an emergency landing on Thursday is only two years old. Alan Joyce has suggested that the incident could have occurred due to some kind of design issue. Checks are now being carried out on all the grounded Qantas A380s.

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