Qantas superjumbo forced to abort flight following engine failure

PASSENGERS reported sparks coming from the engine of an aborted Qantas flight that was forced to return to Los Angeles.

Qantas flight 94 was forced to return to LA two hours into its flight.

QANTAS has denied that an engine “blew up” on one of its jets forcing 500 passengers heading to Australia to turn back to Los Angeles just two hours into their journey.

Flight QF94 departed LAX just after 10pm local time on Friday. Its 480 passengers were due to land in Melbourne at 7am the next day following a 15 hour trans Pacific journey.

A picture from one of the seat back TV screens on the flight showing the aborted flight heading back to LA two hours into its flight. Picture: Twitter.

However, a few hours into the trip, the pilot shut down one of the Airbus A380’s four engines and aborted the flight ferrying travellers back to Los Angeles.

On social media, passengers said the engine “blew up midair” and that sparks were seen coming from the wing.

On Sunday morning, Qantas confirmed that flight 94 was turned back to LA because of an issue with one of the aircraft’s four engines.

The plane involved was a double decker Airbus A380.

But they strenuously denied the engine was ablaze.

“The pilots followed standard procedure, shut down the engine, and the flight landed normally in LA at around 3am local time on Saturday. Engineers are inspecting the aircraft,” the airline said in a statement.

“Reports that the engine was ‘on fire’ aren’t correct; passengers may have seen some sparks before it was safely shut down by the flight crew.”

QF94 #qf94 plane engine blew up mid air, won't be back in Melbourne, stuck in LAX pic.twitter.com/bagNhJtdao

— Data Toffee (@data_toffee) May 20, 2017

@qantas your pilot on #QF94 was amazing in getting us back! Not a very fun experience but absolutely professional.

— Anthony Spiteri (@anthonyspiteri) May 20, 2017

#QF94 redirected back to LAX due to blown engine. @QANTAS crew were fantastic 👍 pic.twitter.com/l7Uz50eWOo

— Larry (@larry_deee) May 20, 2017

The company has yet to say what might have caused the drama at 38,000 feet.

Images from LA showed exhausted passengers dotted around the departure gates sleeping across seats or even on the floor.

A replacement flight, another A380, departed LA at around 2.30pm on Saturday, and is due to land in Melbourne at around 10pm on Sunday night.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau notified about the incident.

#Qantas this is not what I signed up for!Engine shut down mid flight, return back to LAX and had to sleep on floor like I was homeless 👎🏻 pic.twitter.com/EW5C2AWRUQ

— Rod Olsen (@rodolsen) May 20, 2017

In 2010, an engine caught fire on a Qantas A380 travelling from Singapore to Sydney. A disc in one of the engines disintegrated destroying the engine with debris scattered on an Indonesian island. The plane safely landed back in Singapore with no injuries to those on board but it took five months before the jet could be repaired and put back into service. The plane involved in Saturday’s incident was a different aircraft.