American Marconi Wireless News - Qantas plane returns to Australia airport due to 'engine failure', sparks fire

The Qantas flight, QF520, was bound for Brisbane and was circling for a "short period of time" before landing safely at Sydney Airport, Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano said in the statement.

"Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine and confirmed it was a contained engine failure," the airline said.

"While customers would have heard a loud bang, there was not an explosion."

Airservices Australia, the government's aviation regulator, said the engine failure caused "a grass area adjacent to the runway to catch fire", which was swiftly extinguished by firefighters.

The Airservices' National Operations Management Centre enacted a 47-minute ground stop at Sydney Airport to ensure the plane could land as quickly as possible, the regulator said in a statement.

There were no injuries and the affected runway was expected to be operational later Friday evening, it added.

Plane passenger Georgina Lewis was onboard the flight and said she heard a "bang".

"One of the engines appeared to have gone. The pilot came on 10 minutes later to explain that they had a problem with a right-hand engine on take-off," she told local outlet Channel Nine.

Another passenger Mark Willacy, a journalist with Australia's national broadcaster ABC, said the plane struggled to get airborne following the "loud bang" noise.

"That big bang as the wheels were leaving the ground and the shudder, that was like nothing I have ever felt," he told ABC.

"When we landed there was a lot of applause and cheering amongst the passengers."

Tobiano of Qantas said his staff were "highly trained" to respond to such emergency situations.

"We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support," he said in the statement.

"We will also be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue," he added.

Customers were being moved to alternate flights, Qantas said.

Eleven domestic flights were cancelled and four diverted to other airports, a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.

P.Martin--AMWN