A Qantas flight from Sydney to Auckland was forced to make an emergency landing on Friday after pilots received warning of a potential fire in the cargo hold.
The Boeing 737, operating as flight QFA141, declared a mayday while flying over the Tasman Sea. A mayday call is an international distress signal requiring full emergency assistance.
The aircraft landed without incident at the Auckland airport shortly before midday local time.
Emergency services in New Zealand said they were alerted at about 11.05am local time following reports of smoke onboard the flight.
The airport confirmed the plane touched down safely at 11.47am and was met by 16 fire engines and multiple ambulances. No passengers required any medical treatment.
The airline said in a statement that the crew had been responding to “intermittent indication about potential fire in the cargo hold” for an hour before arrival.
“Our engineers will inspect the aircraft to determine the cause,” a spokesperson said, adding that preliminary checks suggested there was no fire in the front cargo hold.
There were 156 passengers onboard, Qantas said, adding that all disembarked safely.
The airport said emergency crews were placed on standby after the aircraft made the mayday call.
“The airfield is now returning to normal but there may be some slight delays for departing and arriving flights,” it said in a statement.
Among the passengers was SBS World News presenter Janice Petersen. She said that the flight “seemed to be going relatively smoothly” until the final hour.
“I saw cabin crew looking concerned and quickly moving towards the back of the plane as instructed by the pilot. It seemed unusual,” she said.
Passengers were not initially told of any difficulty, Ms Petersen said, but the pilot later made an announcement “acknowledging smoke detected in the cargo”.
He warned that fire crews would assess the aircraft after landing and mentioned that escape slides could be deployed if needed.
“He flagged the possibility of using escape slides,” Ms Peterson recalled. “Ultimately, it was all cleared within about 10 minutes with five fire crews on the scene, and handled professionally with a minimum fuss.”
The Hato St John ambulance service, which had dispatched several units to the scene, confirmed that its assistance was not required by any of the people on board the flight.
The incident came in the same week that another Qantas flight was forced to divert.
On Monday, flight QF1889 from Darwin to Cairns returned to its departure airport half an hour into the journey after the pilots received a pressurisation warning. The flight, operated by Alliance Aviation, a carrier in which Qantas holds a stake, descended 20,000 feet in minutes before landing safely.
A spokesperson acknowledged that it would have been an “unsettling” experience for the passengers but stressed that the aircraft did not “plunge”.
Friday’s false alarm adds to a series of operational challenges faced by Qantas in recent months as the airline works to restore confidence following the pandemic downturn.
Safety regulators and investigators are expected to review the incident once the airline completes its inspection.
Despite the dramatic scenes at the Auckland airport, Qantas said that passenger safety had not been compromised.
