An AirAsia flight to Malaysia was forced to return to Australia shortly after takeoff following a suspected bird strike, the carrier said yesterday, the second incident involving the airline in the nation in two weeks.
Passengers said the plane shook and bangs came from the right engine of AirAsia X flight D7207 following its departure from Australia’s Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur late on Monday.
The flight carrying 345 passengers and 14 crew was diverted to Brisbane airport just north of the eastern city and landed safely, the Malaysian carrier said.
“Two bird remains were found on the runway,” the low-cost carrier said in a statement, adding that the starboard engine had experienced a “suspected bird strike.”
“We are following all regulatory guidelines to ensure the safety and well-being of our guests, who are currently being attended to by our ground staff,” AirAsia X chief executive Benyamin Ismail said. “We would like to commend our pilot and crew members for their professionalism and swift action to reassure passengers who were on board flight D7207, and to land the aircraft safely in Brisbane airport.”
The Malaysian airline said it was arranging a special flight to take the passengers to Kuala Lumpur.
Passenger Calvin Boon said he saw flames going through the engine.
“The whole engine blown and flame went through it all like [video game] Resident Evil, man really, Resident Evil,” Australian Broadcasting Corp quoted him as saying.
Another passenger, Tim Joga, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the plane started to vibrate minutes after takeoff.
“The plane started shuddering, then there were a couple of loud bangs and a lot of light,” Joga said. “I could see an orange light coming from the windows.”
Another AirAsia flight from Perth to Kuala Lumpur experienced technical issues about 90 minutes into the journey on Sunday and was forced back to Australia, with one passenger saying the plane was “shaking like a washing machine.”
The airline suffered its first fatal incident in December 2014, when AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crashed in stormy weather off Indonesia killing all 162 people on board.
That followed two Malaysia Airlines tragedies in the same year which left hundreds dead, raising concerns among travelers about the safety of the nation’s carriers.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The