Qantas pilots landed a plane with just one working engine, and the airline says it was safe to do so

26.03.2024 - 09:47 / insider.com

Qantas pilots successfully landed a plane flying from Melbourne to Perth in Australia with just one working engine on Monday, local newspaper The West Australian reported.

The pilots turned off one of the engines manually to make the emergency landing, the airline told The West Australian. The airline said the Qantas flight QF781 — an Airbus A330-200 — had issues with one of its engines as the flight got closer to Perth.

"The pilots followed the procedures for this type of incident and manually shut down the engine and requested a priority landing. These aircraft are designed to safely operate with one engine," Qantas told The West Australian.

Qantas engineers are now inspecting the plane, per the report. Qantas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Passengers said they heard a loud noise and that the plane was shaking before attempting to land in Perth.

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"The cabin crew were quick to start opening everything up however, curtains etc. Then the pilot came on and advised they'd shut down engine one," Lachlan Britt told The West Australian.

Darrell Weekes, another passenger on the flight, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the ordeal was a first for him, even after being a frequent flyer for 16 years.

"It's very unsettling to have a large bang and know that you're only flying on one engine," he said.

An X user who claimed to be on the flight said that the pilots landed the plane smoothly. "But thankful I've landed cause shit was scary to sit through (yes I did cry the whole time and no I won't be booking a flight soon)," they wrote.

Engine failures in commercial planes are rare. On average, jet engines have a failure rate of one per 370,000 flight hours, according to a 2018 paper by the University of Bologna, citing the Federal Aviation Administration.

Doug Drury, an aviation safety expert and professor at Central Queensland University, wrote in a 2023 CNN article that planes are designed so that they can fly just as well on one engine.

"Having just one engine operating means you won't have the maximum thrust power for take off, but you'd be able to fly and land just fine," Drury wrote, adding that planes can continue to fly with one engine failure until they run out of fuel.

It's not the first time Qantas pilots have had to turn off an engine to land safely. In January 2023, pilots landed a Qantas flight flying from Auckland to Sydney after one of the engines failed while crossing the Tasman Sea.