Qantas plane lands safely on one engine after Mayday call over Pacific Ocean

Sydney – A Qantas flight from New Zealand to Sydney landed safely on a single engine after issuing a mayday call over the Pacific on Wednesday.

Qantas Flight 144 with 145 passengers on board landed at Sydney Airport in Auckland, New Zealand, after a three and a half hour flight between the neighboring countries’ most populous cities.

The Boeing 737-838 about an hour from Sydney had “a problem” with one of its two engines, according to a Qantas statement.

The distress call, issued when a flight is in serious and imminent danger and requires immediate assistance, was downgraded to a PAN-PAN – Possible Need for Assistance – prior to landing.

Qantas said the pilot cut the engine but did not specify the problem.

“While in-flight engine shutdowns are rare and would obviously be of concern to passengers, our pilots are trained to manage them safely and aircraft are designed to fly on one engine for extended periods,” Qantas said.

Passengers described their experience of the engine malfunction as “slight shaking” and “bumpy turbulence”. Some reported hearing a bang.

Some told reporters in Sydney that they were not told an engine had failed until they got off the plane.

Reuters reports that some said they didn’t even know there was a problem until the pilot announced it.

“I turned on my phone and my wife called me 18 times: ‘Have you landed, have you landed?'” an unnamed passenger told reporters at the airport, according to Reuters.

Sydney Airport said emergency crews were put on standby as a precaution, including firefighters, ambulances and police.

Neil Hanford, chairman of Strategic Aviation Solutions, a Sydney-based industry consultancy, said single-engine 737s can fly fast and land safely.