Last updated: March 14, 2014



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World Travel

Emirates A380 in a Sydney mid-air engine explosion

Passengers have told of a loud bang on an Emirates A380 that was forced to turn back to Sydney Airport.


People wait at Sydney airport. Picture: Steve Harris Source: The Daily Telegraph

DISTRESSED passengers told how they survived a mid-air emergency last night when an Emirates A380's engine exploded at 10,000 feet and forced it to turn back for an emergency landing.

About 20 minutes after leaving Sydney, Emirates flight EK413 experienced an "engine fault'' en route to Dubai.

"I saw a flash,'' John Fothergill, 49, from Auckland, said. "I thought it could have been lightening but then we saw flames come out of the engine. The whole interior of the A380 lit up.



The grounded plane. Picture: Steve Harris Source: The Daily Telegraph

Emirates flight attendants responded by moving straight to the windows that faced out to the engine.

They observed the damaged and asked the passengers what they had seen.

Mr Fothergill's wife, Dr Amal Aburawi, questioned how the Emirates staff reacted and said, "The staff panicked more than the passengers.''

She said: "Everyone was running left and right (with) no one knowing what's happened.''

"I was in the same incident in 1988 when I was travelling on Alitalia, (so) it was (a) flash back to what happened (there). It was exactly the same (but) the way it was being handled on Alitalia was so organised and calmer than what's happened tonight.''


People waiting at Sydney airport. Picture: Steve Harris Source: The Daily Telegraph

Dr Aburawi furthermore criticised Emirate's flight attendants for not properly informing some non-English speaking passengers of the incident.

"I'm a frequent flyer on Emirates,'' she said. "Usually its Arabic announcement following the English, (but) this time no one mentioned anything in Arabic and there (were) many Arabic passengers, many of them old ladies.

"I held (an Emirates flight attendant) by the hand and said, 'Can you ask someone to do the announcement in Arabic because there are Arabic people who will not understand what's happening with this panic situation'.

"(She said she would) send Arabic speaking staff to tell them and calm them down. (But) I checked with them when we landed and no one spoke to them. They don't know why we landed back in Sydney.


"Emirates should be well trained in this.

"I hope Emirates will get some lessons out of this.''

Emirates said an "engine fault'' was to blame for the incident.



The pilot contacted ground crew at Sydney Airport and a decision was made to dump fuel and turn the plane around.

Emirates said, "Passengers are being re-booked on alternative flights (and) Emirates apologises for any inconvenience caused to its customers.''