Singapore Airlines plane catches fire after emergency landing

The engine oil light prompted the captain to call for an emergency landing back at the Singapore airport.

A Singapore Airlines plane with 222 passengers and 19 crew members on board had to make an emergency landing at the Changi airport after it received multiple “engine oil warning” messages.

The aircraft’s right engine caught fire after the aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER, touched down about 6:50 am (8:50 am AEST). The flames started once the plane made its emergency landing (phew!), allowing airport emergency services to efficiently put out the flames – but not before the raging fire was caught on camera!

The passengers were either put on other fights several hours after the incident or given overnight accommodation at a nearby hotel by the airline.

One of the plane’s passengers, Ms Lee Bee Yee, 43, said she detected a faint whiff of what smelled like gasoline while flying.

All the passengers were finally disembarked down the stairs and were taken to the terminal building in the bus.

News wire AP quoted Lee Bee Yee’s accompanying post, which stated: “I just escaped death!!!!” Passengers were able to transfer to another Milan-bound plane. Shot from a window seat, the video clip shows smoke and flames engulfing the right engine. “And they can’t fly like this to Milan…That’s why they turned back”, she said.

“The blaze was quite fierce and we waited for around 2 or 3 minutes before the fire engines arrived”, she told The Straits Times. “But they appear to have gotten that under control very quickly”, said Greg Waldron, Asia Managing Editor at Flightglobal, an industry publication.

It was only after he got off the flight that he realized how “close to death” he and his wife had been.