Qantas passengers heard ‘large bang’ before mayday call on Auckland to Sydney flight

Qantas flight QF144 from Auckland has landed safely at Sydney Airport after issuing a mayday call over the Tasman Sea.

Vonnie Wavish, who was on the flight, told Nine News passengers heard a loud noise partway through the journey.

“About halfway across we heard a large bang, but nobody seemed to be worried,” Wavish said.

A left engine issue on the Boeing 737 meant it was forced to shut down that engine mid-flight over the Tasman Sea, and flew the rest of its journey with just one functioning engine, before landing safely in Sydney. About 145 people were believed to be on board the flight.

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Those onboard didn’t realise there was widespread concern for their flight, The Guardian reported a passenger saying.

“We didn’t know … that we didn’t have one engine,” the man told the ABC. “When they said you can turn on your phones, I turned on my phone and my wife had called about 18 times [asking] ‘Have you landed? Have you landed?’”

“At the time we didn’t realise it was actually the whole engine had gone,” one woman told ABC TV. “We just heard a bang and that was it, so you don’t know.”

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Another passenger, Leslie Spring, said the flight was bumpy, but felt similar to regular turbulence.

“[The staff] were brilliant, if they hadn’t told us we wouldn’t have known,” Spring said.

“They just said there would be a fire crew just in case, reassuring to know they were on the ball.”

The flight landed at Sydney Airport just before 5.30pm, New Zealand time.

“Qantas Flight 144, a 737 flying from Auckland to Sydney, experienced an issue with one of its engines about an hour from its destination,” Qantas said in a statement.

“While a mayday was initially issued, this has now been downgraded to a PAN (possible assistance needed).”

The plane will now be assessed by engineers, Qantas said.

Video from the scene showed emergency services waiting for the plane as it came in to land. Four emergency services vehicles then tailed the plane as it headed to the gate. Engineers were also seen inspecting the left engine of the aircraft, The Guardian reported.

No dangerous goods were on board the flight.

“While inflight engine shutdowns are rare, and would naturally be concerning for passengers, our pilots are trained to manage them safely and aircraft are designed to fly for an extended period on one engine,” the Qantas spokesperson was reported saying.

Aviation expert Irene King said pilots were well trained for landing on a single engine, which the aircraft were designed to be able to do.

“I would imagine the pilots would be very familiar with Sydney and it’s fortunate that there are no obstacles on that approach – no hills or anything,” she said.

Mayday calls were not common and, although they sounded dramatic, were a signal to air traffic controllers to “clear the decks”.

“It means, ‘We’re coming in and we’ve got a problem, clear the decks and have emergency services on standby.’“

In most situations like this, the mayday call is the result of a light that’s come on indicating there is something wrong with the engine, which the pilots then have to shut down.

“However, in many cases, nothing was found to be wrong with the engine after the plane had landed, King said.

The plane was originally scheduled to land at 5.10pm and was nearly 20 minutes late. However, it had also taken off late from Auckland.

A Sydney Airport spokesperson said, as a precaution, the airport had emergency services on standby before the plane landed, including firefighters, ambulance and police.

More than 100,000 people were tracking the flight on the website FlightRadar24 while it was in the air.