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Plane makes emergency landing after engine fails
A Cathay Pacific flight en route to Hong Kong from Perth, Australia, was forced to make an emergency landing early Friday at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali
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Cathay Pacific flight en route to Hong Kong from Perth, Australia, was forced to make an emergency landing early Friday at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali. The aircraft, which was carrying 254 passengers and 13 crewmembers, had been beset by engine failure.
The Transportation Ministry's Bali and Nusa Tenggara airport authority chief Yusfandri Gona said Flight CX170 had landed at the airport at 3:35 a.m. local time after requesting permission from the airport's air traffic control (ATC).
'They contacted the airport's ATC to send the [emergency landing] request five to seven minutes before the landing,' Yusfandri said.
The emergency landing, he explained, had been necessitated by the failure of the aircraft's engine number two. He also denied earlier reports that the aircraft's wing had been on fire during the landing.
'It was not true that the plane was on fire,' he said.
As of Friday evening, the Airbus A330 aircraft, which had left Perth just before midnight, could still be seen at Bali airport.
'Cathay Pacific will send a new engine from its maintenance center in Hong Kong to replace the damaged one,' Yusfandri said.
Ngurah Rai co-general manager I Gusti Ngurah Ardita, meanwhile, confirmed that there had been no injuries reported in the incident.
'All the passengers and crew are safe. They're all fine. No problem at all,' he said. As of Friday evening, some passengers had been flown to Hong Kong on various commercial flights, while others were still waiting for their onward flight.
Musician Joel Sirna, one of those aboard Flight CX170, said passengers had been awoken by a loud noise.
'Mid-flight, we heard a loud bang and the plane started to shake,' Sirna told Perth Radio 6PR from Denpasar, as quoted by the Associated Press on Friday.
'All the lights went out and I looked out the window and saw some flames and sparks ' the wing and the motor were on fire,' he said.
Sirna said some passengers were highly distressed, while others tried to calm them down.
'There were a few screams,' he said.
A Cathay Pacific statement confirmed that no passengers or crew members had been hurt during the incident.
'The engine was shut down and an emergency landing was declared. The aircraft landed safely in Denpasar. Fire services met the aircraft on arrival,' the statement read.
The airline also made it clear that there had been no fire on board.
'There were reports a loud noise was heard, and some passengers saw sparks and flames from outside the window. We can confirm that what witnesses saw was a light due to the engine failure, not a real fire,' the statement said.
