Engine failure panics passengers on Cathay Pacific flight

CATHAY Pacific insists there was no fire on a flight out of Perth that made an emergency landing, saying passengers who thought they saw flames were actually seeing light from an engine failure.

According to The West Australian, it was understood the plane suffered an engine fire mid-flight early this morning.

But Cathay Pacific said there was no engine fire. “There was no engine fire and no fire warning”, the jetliner said. “The girl next to me started freaking out and crying”.

“It felt like a long time from the moment of the bang and the plane shake and the losing power and the flames, it was a scary sight”, he said.

All 251 passengers aboard the flight, which was supposed to be travelling from Perth, Australia, to Hong Kong, were left shaken but uninjured.

FLIGHT CX170 departed for Hong Kong just before midnight on Thursday but a defect in one of the Airbus A330’s engines caused it to divert to Denpasar, where it was met by firefighters.

All 234 people on board were unharmed and the plane landed safely again in Johannesburg.

The man said about 15 minutes later the captain reported a problem with one of the engines.

“No other flights were disrupted because the plane made a ideal landing, with no issues”, she said, adding the aircraft remained at Bali airport Friday where it was being repaired.

Cathay Pacific said the error was due to a valve malfunction and led to all 288 passengers and 18 crew being forced to use oxygen masks. “That’s what we had to do”, he said.

Sirna said he and the rest of his group of six would continue on to New York as planned.

An airline spokeswoman said in response that the airline had received the letter and was engaging directly with the pilots to deal with the matters as the safety of passengers and crew was the airline’s first priority.

“The airline is now investigating the incident”.