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Qantas plane lands safely after mayday call
A Qantas flight from New Zealand to Sydney has landed safely after reporting engine issues in midair and making a mayday call.
A twin-jet Boeing 737-838 from Auckland, flight QF144, touched down at Sydney Airport on Wednesday just before 3.30 p.m., according to FlightRadar. A Qantas representative said the plane had a problem with one of its two engines approximately an hour from Sydney and had followed usual protocol by sending out a mayday warning.
What does a mayday call mean?
A mayday call is a signal that “an aircraft is in grave and imminent danger and requires immediate assistance,” according to Airservices Australia, a government-owned organisation in charge of managing Australia’s airspace.
After that, controllers will inform the local emergency services of the incident’s details. A possible assistance needed or PAN call is a less urgent situation that still requires a controller response and pilot assistance.
Once the aircraft has touched down and been inspected by our experts, we will give additional details about this incident, a Qantas spokesperson stated.
A spokesperson for Sydney Airport said that as a precaution, the airport alerted Fire and Rescue, NSW Police, and NSW Ambulance. Upon landing, emergency services were waiting for the aircraft. At this point, the airport does not anticipate that the incident would affect other flights.
