Qantas 737s make it three on the run for mechanical defects

Qantas’ miserable week has continued with a third Boeing 737 suffering a mechanical defect mid-flight in as many days.

The Qantas Boeing 737 surrounded by emergency vehicles after issuing a mayday call following an engine failure, en route from Auckland to Sydney on January 18. Picture: Andrew Leeson/AFP

For the third day in a row, a Qantas Boeing 737 has suffered a mechanical defect mid-flight.

Flight QF430 from Melbourne to Sydney turned around shortly after takeoff at 9.28am on Friday, landing back at Tullamarine at 10.18am.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the pilots received an indication of a “minor engine issue” and as a precaution returned to Melbourne.

“The aircraft landed normally. This was not an emergency or priority landing and both engines remained operational throughout the flight,” she said.

Customers were being re-accommodated on the next available flights.

Qantas flight QF430 which turned back to Melbourne after an engine fault occurred shortly after takeoff. Picture: Flight Aware.

The incident came after another Boeing 737 was forced to turn back to Sydney on the way to Fiji on Thursday with a mechanical fault unrelated to the engines.

Qantas said pilots followed “standard procedure” in relation to the fault indicator and engineers examined the aircraft after it landed normally.

Flightradar24 showed the jet in question registered VH-VZQ was back in operation Thursday night.

On Wednesday, a Qantas 737 issued a “mayday” when an engine failed about two-thirds into a flight from Auckland to Sydney.

The alert was later downgraded to a “PAN” but dozens of emergency services assembled at Sydney International Airport in readiness for the landing of flight QF144.

The 737 carrying 152 passengers and crew, landed smoothly as engineers pored over the failed left engine.

On Thursday, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau launched an investigation into the engine failure, and asked Qantas to quarantine the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.

Qantas’ 737 fleet has an average age of nearly 15-years and will be progressively replaced with A321neos from 2024.

Maintenance on the aircraft is mostly done at the airline’s Brisbane base.

Pilots confirmed it was a “once in a career” event for an engine to fail but said they were well trained for such an occurrence.

Throughout the year, the Qantas Group normally averaged around 60 turnbacks, out of more than 10,000 industry-wide.

Qantas Domestic chief executive Andrew David said it was important to put this week’s incidents into context.

“Across aviation there are diversions and air turnbacks happening every day for a range of reasons,” Mr David said.

“They usually reflect an abundance of caution and that’s why flying is such a safe way to travel.”

He stressed that aircraft were “complex pieces of machinery with millions of moving parts” and said it was not uncommon to have a problem with one of them.

“What’s important to know is that aircraft are designed with that in mind and have a lot of built in redundancy, and our crew are trained to deal with those situations so that they can land safely,” said Mr David.

During Wednesday’s flight, passengers were not told the aircraft was operating on a single engine for the final hour of their journey, only that there was an “issue” and emergency services would meet them at Sydney Airport.

Australian and International Pilots Association vice president Mark Hofmeyer said “aviate, navigate, communicate” was the pilots’ mantra, and what information was shared with passengers was entirely a matter for the flight crew on the day.

“The pilot in the chair made a judgment based on the information that they had at the time, and I think we have to back that 100 per cent,” Mr Hofmeyer said.