AirAsia plane forced to turn back to Perth
The terrifying moment an AirAsiaX plane suffered a technical issue has been captured on camera.
The plane bound for Kuala Lumpur was forced to turn back to Perth, Western Australia, on June 25, after what Air Asia has described as a technical issue.
The 359 passengers on board flight D7237 said they heard a bang and looked out the window to see the left engine vibrating violently under the wing.
The aircraft began shaking and shuddering and the pilot made a U-turn to head back to the Perth airport.
A passenger told the ABC, “It was literally like you were sitting on top of a washing machine. The whole thing was going. We could see the engine out the window which was really shaking on the wing.”
The aircraft landed safely at Perth at 10am, three hours after it had initially departed.
Passenger Sophie Nicolas said she heard a small explosion from the left wing.
“I couldn’t see anything ... the plane just started shuddering a lot,” she said.
“You could tell by the cabin crew’s reaction that it was really bad.”
She said the Captain asked everyone to remain seated and announced the plane would return to Perth.
“He said ‘I hope you all say a prayer, I’ll be saying a prayer too and let’s hope we all get back home safely’,” she said.
“It was terrifying.
“I was crying a lot ... a lot of people were crying, trying to call their mums and stuff.
“But we couldn’t really do anything, just wait and trust the Captain and he delivered us home safely, which is amazing.”
Paramedics, fire crews and police officers were waiting at Perth Airport, while water police and marine rescue volunteers were on guard along the WA coast in case the aircraft crashed into the ocean.
After the plane landed safely, everyone on board applauded the pilots.
“The Captain did a very good job, he was reassuring and then we landed safely, that’s the most important thing,” passenger Tzeyau Chung said.
UPDATE: AirAsia X has released a statement: "AirAsia X Berhad confirms that flight D7237 bound for Kuala Lumpur from Perth, Australia on 25 June 2017 at 06:50hrs local time with 359 passengers on board has returned to Perth Airport shortly after take off due to a technical issue.
Our engineers are assessing the aircraft. Guests on board the flight were transferred to the next available flight or to the recovery flight D7 689, which safely departed Perth at 23:40hrs of the same day.
The safety of our guests is our utmost priority."
Video credit: Instagram/maesaya via Storyful