QantasLink plane from Adelaide to Canberra issues urgent PAN 10 minutes into flight
A QantasLink flight to Canberra, carrying three Liberal politicians, has been forced to make an emergency landing in Adelaide after smoke filled the cabin minutes after takeoff.
Three Liberal politicians including South Australian senator Leah Blyth have been caught up in airport chaos after an Adelaide flight was forced to turn around when smoke filled the cabin.
QantasLink 1972 was scheduled to depart from Adelaide Airport at 6.10am and arrive at Canberra later in the morning, but a Qantas spokeswoman said the flight had hardly made it into the air before it had to turn back.
Smoke was evident in the cockpit shortly after takeoff which lead the pilot to make a priority landing call.
“The plane declared a PAN 10 minutes after takeoff and returned quickly and safely,” she said.
When an aircraft declares a PAN it signals an urgent, but not immediately life-threatening situation.
Senator Leah Blyth, who was travelling with two colleagues to a meeting about net zero in Canberra, said on FIVEAA she had “an interesting start to the morning” and was “happy to be safe on the ground”.
“It wasn’t scary — it was unusual but obviously we fly a lot as politicians,” she said.
“I’ve never had a cabin fill with smoke quite like that before.
“Hats off to the Qantas staff who were cool calm and collected and got us back on the ground safely.
“It smelt electrical rather than fuel or anything like that.”
The Qantas spokeswoman said a reported technical issue was what caused the PAN.
“The plane landed safely this morning and our engineers will be checking the aircraft today,” she said.
“All customers on board have since been put onto alternative flights this morning.
“Our pilots are highly trained to handle situations like this and the aircraft landed safely after the appropriate procedures were conducted.”
Ms Blyth said it was “the shortest flight ever”.
“Hopefully I will still get to Canberra on time for a very important party meeting,” she said.
“We were joking saying the net zero debate has gone up in smoke.”
Regular plane spotter Michael Dickie said there was nothing “abnormal” when the aircraft took off.
“I noticed it didn’t gain a lot of altitude and then the next Qantas plane on the runway sat there for the next four or five minutes which is a bit unusual,” he said on FIVEAA.
“And then it taxied off and the fireys came out and lined the runway.
“As soon as it landed the fire brigade just basically chased it down the runway and when it taxied off they all pulled up next to the aircraft.”
Mr Dickie said “it could have been a lot worse”.
The Embraer ERJ-190 — the QantasLink plane — has a wing span of 28.7m and overall length of 36.2m.
Its maximum takeoff weight is 51,800kg.
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Originally published as QantasLink plane from Adelaide to Canberra issues urgent PAN 10 minutes into flight
