Eyewitness on A380 Emergency

A passenger aboard the Qantas A380 plane that made an emergency landing on Thursday in Singapore said there was a loud boom and a fire on the superjumbo’s wing shortly after it took off from the city-

A passenger aboard the Qantas A380 plane that made an emergency landing on Thursday in Singapore said there was a loud boom and a fire on the superjumbo’s wing shortly after it took off from the city-state.

‘We heard the boom, I looked outside and saw a little bit of fire,’ German national Ulf Waschbusch told AFP by telephone after he disembarked from the plane along with the 432 other passengers.

‘Something ruptured the left wing, it was a small rupture,’ said the passenger, a technology company executive based in Singapore who was heading to Sydney on holiday.

The plane’s captain then announced that the A380 was going to dump fuel in preparation for an emergency landing. There was no panic among the passengers as it circled over Indonesian territory, said Mr Waschbusch.

‘We were circling for almost two hours dumping fuel,’ he said, adding it was his first flight aboard the huge Airbus plane. ‘Everyone was surprisingly calm on the plane. We are not going crazy at all,’ Mr Waschbusch said.

‘The crew helped tremendously. I felt in good hands. Qantas did a great job in keeping us safe.’ The Australian carrier said there were no reports of injuries to the passengers and 26 crew, following the first mid-air emergency involving the A380 since the plane’s entry into commercial service three years ago.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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