Cockpit fire causes Qantas plane to make forced landing

SYDNEY—A cockpit fire forced a Qantas Airbus A330-200 to make an unscheduled landing at Cairns, the airline said Thursday, in the latest of a string of problems for the Australian carrier.

The plane was en route from Manila to Sydney on Wednesday afternoon when an electrical fault caused smoke and small flames near the left-hand windscreen of the cockpit.

The pilots used an extinguisher to douse the fire and diverted to Cairns, in tropical north Queensland.

“There were no ill effects or injuries experienced by any of the 147 passengers or 11 crew, and all passengers were accommodated on other domestic services to complete their journey to Sydney,” Qantas said in a statement.

A passenger told The Sydney Morning Herald that the incident was “truly scary”.

“There was a burning smell in the cabin that was very strong, and then the captain came over the loudspeaker and explained an electrical problem meant there was a serious risk of fire,” he said.

“Later he explained flames had come back for a second time and they’d had to use a fire extinguisher in the cockpit.”

Qantas has endured a dramatic few months. Last November it temporarily suspended flights of its Airbus A380 superjumbos after an engine on one exploded after taking off from Singapore, damaging the plane.

Then in January, a flight bound for New York made an unscheduled stop in Fiji after the Boeing 747 developed a problem with a fuel valve supplying one of its engines.

Soon after, another Boeing 747 suffered mid-air mechanical trouble soon after taking off from Bangkok and was forced to return to the Thai capital.