On November 8, 2024, a Qantas Boeing B737-800 aircraft was required to perform an emergency landing at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) shortly after takeoff, in the process sparking grassfire along the runway.
Flight QF 520 departed SYD Airport at around 12:15 local time for its scheduled flight to Brisbane Airport (BNE).
Via a statement released by the airline, Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano confirmed that the flight had experienced a suspected engine failure after takeoff. “After circling for a short period of time, the aircraft landed safely at Sydney Airport,” Tobiano said.
“Our pilots are highly trained to handle situations like this and the aircraft landed safely after the appropriate procedures were conducted. We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support,” he added.
❗️Chaos at Sydney Airport, Boeing plane suffers suspected engine failure as runway grassfire sparks
A Qantas flight bound for Brisbane was forced to make an emergency landing at Sydney Airport on Friday afternoon after experiencing suspected engine failure, shortly after a large… pic.twitter.com/COXOaJMPUe
— John Metzner (@JohnRMetzner) November 8, 2024
He also announced that Qantas will be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue. No passengers or crew are reported to have been injured.
According to initial reports, it still wasn’t clear whether the runway grassfire had been connected to flight QF520 or was coincidental. However, Airservices Australia, which manages air traffic and aviation firefighting crews, later confirmed that the grassfire was directly caused by the aircraft’s engine failure.
Our landing at Sydney airport was aborted by a grass fire next to the runway. Have the fire crews something to do. pic.twitter.com/EbTwYD6ZGV
— Nigel Withers (@MajorBlipvert) November 8, 2024
The was eventually extinguished, but only after causing delays in operations.
By 17:00 local time, Sydney Airport issued a statement to say that the airport was back to full operation.
Passengers on QF520 were later re accommodated to another flight to Brisbane.