A MALAYSIA AIRLINES flight was forced to divert to the Australian outback town of Alice Springs yesterday for “technical reasons” in a scare one passenger described as “hell”.
Flight MH122, carrying 224 passengers, was heading from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur when Australian reports said one its engines shut down.
The plane landed safely in the desert town of Alice Springs at 5.48pm (6.48am Irish time).
“Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH122 from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur has been diverted to Alice Springs due to technical reasons,” the airline said in a statement.
Malaysia Airlines has said it “deeply regrets the distress experienced by passengers”, adding that “safety at all times is Malaysia Airlines’ number one priority”.
In its statement, the airline outlined why the captain made the decision to make an emergency landing:
Based on reports received, there was a loud bang heard from the left engine. This was followed by a warning indicator which appeared on the electronic aircraft monitoring system. The captain then requested for the cabin crew to prepare for a normal landing.
https://twitter.com/MAS/status/954237780976058368
The airline said that there was “no chaos reported in the cabin”, however passengers have described the fear they felt when the loud banging noise was heard.
Passenger Sanjeev Pandev told the BBC that the plane appeared to have a problem about four hours into the flight.
“It was shaking and vibrating and the noise was getting louder and louder,” he said.
Some people were praying and people had tears in their eyes. It was a really terrifying moment.
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Another passenger, Chin Kanani, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation his wife became alarmed when she heard a banging sound.
“She said she was on the loo when she started hearing loud banging noises from the right-hand side of the plane and that’s when all it started,” he said.
It was like hell this flight and they were told to be ready for an emergency landing.
https://twitter.com/alasyam/status/953911304753840128
Passenger Mohamad Nogheib told ABC that he “was scared for my life, I’m not going to lie”.
The airline has a chequered history with flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur shot down in July 2014 over war-torn Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
And in March the same year, MH370 was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it disappeared with 239 people on board.
With reporting by AFP.
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