A technical failure, which left a gaping hole in an engine casing, forced a China Eastern flight to turn back to Sydney around an hour after takeoff.
Flight MU736, which is an Airbus A330-200 twin jet, landed back in the Australian city after the mid-air emergency on Sunday. Kathy Zhang, general manager for the Oceania region at China Eastern Airlines, told Reuters that no injuries were reported.
Passengers told Australia’s Seven News that they heard a loud sound shortly after take off followed by burning smells. “All of a sudden we heard this noise… it kind of smelt like burning” a passenger told Seven News network. “I was really scared. Our group was terrified.”
Images on social media showed a large hole on the engine casing that is more than 3ft long.
Tonight's China Eastern A330 Sydney (SYD) to Shanghai (PVG). Flight MU736. Soon after TKOF RW 34L. A330-200 with 2 x RR Trent 772B-60. pic.twitter.com/PWpSpuTy23
— Flight (@flightorg) June 11, 2017
An Airbus spokesman told Reuters that they are trying to determine what happened with Rolls-Royce, which manufactured the plane’s Trent 700 series engines. “We are aware of the incident and will be working closely with our customer and relevant partners to understand the cause of the issue” Rolls-Royce said in a statement seen by Reuters.