© AAPA plane has made an emergency landing in Perth after flames were spotted coming from its engine.
Cobham Aviation Services said one of the plane's four engines caught fire as it was climbing shortly after takeoff from Perth Airport.
"When the fire was detected, the engine was shut down and the fire extinguished," the company said in a statement. "There were no injuries among the 92 passengers or two pilots and three cabin crew."
The British Aerospace BAe 146 jet, which had been heading to Barrow Island off the west Australian coast, returned to Perth and landed safely. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
Passenger Jason Grimmett said he was sitting near the engine that caught fire.
"Fuel starting spewing out, caught alight - there was a bit of panic on board but the pilots were quite quick to react and cut fuel lines and then put it out," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "So we just turned around and came back in."
Perth is serving as the hub for a multinational search effort for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. Analyses of satellite and radar data show the Malaysian plane probably crashed somewhere in the remote Indian Ocean far off the west Australia coast.
As long as the engine damage remains contained in the nacelle or thrown through the exhaust and the fire is extinguishable, the situation is easy to control and of no great stress to a normal flight crew.
Only the alert is a bit frightening. Once the procedure is carried out and the fire extinguished, it is almost business as usual. These procedures are trained in the simulator every 6 months and are reviewed before the first flight of the day in every company.
Always irritating to read the exploitation of such events, to imprint fear in passengers. Sounds like National Geographic. Once we had panic in the cabin, because of circling in the hold - of course with the gear up -, waiting for VIP traffic. A passenger started shouting: The wheels don't come down ! We are all going to die ! ...
Scary, hey ?