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.
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