Witnesses described a loud midair explosion as a Qantas A380 superjumbo experienced engine trouble, sending debris crashing to the ground in Indonesia before making an emergency landing in Singapore.
Metal debris including a piece bearing part of the airline’s red-and-white “flying kangaroo” emblem slammed into industrial and residential areas of the northern city of Batam, opposite Singapore.
“I didn’t see a plane crash but I heard a loud explosion in the air. There were metal shards coming down from the sky into an industrial area in Batam,” witness Noor Kanwa said.
The double-decker plane was carrying 433 passengers and 26 crew from Singapore to Sydney when it ran into trouble shortly after takeoff and had to return to the city-state’s Changi Airport, leaving a trail of smoke.
Another witness described hearing a screeching sound before the explosion, and said Batam residents came out of their homes to observe the superjumbo circling as it used up its fuel before attempting to land.
“I was driving near a residential estate when suddenly I heard a thunderous” sound, 35-year-old driver Ricky said. “I thought it was an explosion but when I looked up I saw a plane going round and round and there was smoke coming out of its tail.”
“Then three or four pieces of metal fell from the sky, each not longer than a meter. They fell into a field,” he said.
“Dozens of residents rushed out of their homes to see what was going on. They looked excited. In Batam it’s common to see planes taking off from Singapore and flying over us. But we didn’t expect to see something like this,” he said.
Batam police officer Bobby Baharudin said debris, including shards of aluminum, was “scattered over Batam.”
The pieces included what appeared to be bits of a left engine casing that was torn away in the incident.
The Qantas plane spent several minutes dumping fuel over Indonesia before making its emergency landing in Singapore, where it touched down safely and was swarmed by fire trucks.
The Australian government said no passengers or crew were injured in the incident, keeping intact Qantas’s record of never having had a fatal jetliner accident in its 90-year history. Several Indonesian and foreign media outlets erroneously reported that the plane had crashed, sparking a flurry of rumors across social media networks such as Twitter where “A380” quickly became a trending topic.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia