Qantas flight QF643 departed Sydney today at 08:38 AEDT and climbed to 13,000ft before the crew declared an emergency (squawk 7700).

Pilots of the Boeing 737-800 (registration VH-VZV) required an immediate return to Sydney due to smoke in the cockpit.

The aircraft was cleared for a priority landing and returned to its gate only 29 minutes after takeoff.

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Few minutes before landing, American Airlines flight AA73 declared an emergency (squawk 7700) due to low fuel.

The flight departed Los Angeles LAX at 23:04 PST Saturday, December 14 2024 for a 14-hour flight to Australia.

The flight operated by a Boeing 777-300ER (registration N722AN) landed safely on runway 16R 14 hours and 11 minutes after takeoff.

The aircraft was expected at gate 57 at SYD Airport.

UPDATE 1
The aircraft vacated the runway but stopped on the taxiway.

UPDATE 2
The aircraft has been removed from the taxiway after it been checked by emergency vehicles.

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Jetstar flight #JQ27 to Phuket returned to Sydney Airport today after a bit more than one hour of flight.

The Boeing 787-8 (registration VH-VKH) departed Sydney Airport at 15:34 AEDT.

According to report, one of the aircraft’s 10 wheels was damaged during take-off from runway 34L.

After burning fuel at 5,200 ft over Richmond RAAF air base, the crew requested a priority landing back to SYD Airport while emergency services were on standby.

The main runway was closed for approximately 30 minutes to allow the aircraft to land, get towed to a gate and for a runway inspection to take place.

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Australian Border Force (ABF) has been suffering from a computer system outage. There has also been a grass fire at Sydney Airport and a Qantas domestic flight returned to Sydney after an engine failure.

The ABF SmartGate outage lasted for 2 hours causing delays in arrivals and departures, with Sydney and Melbourne airports the worst affected. During the outage extra ABF officers were “surged” to manually process passengers between 10am and noon. The cause of the outage is still under investigation. ABF said no flights were impacted.

Local reports state that QF520, a flight from Sydney to Brisbane, was mid take off when passengers heard a loud bang. The plane ended up “circling” over Botany Bay before landing safely with 174 passengers on board.

Around the same time a grass fire started near Sydney’s 3rd runway. Both ARFF and Fire and Rescue New South Wales Fire (FRNSW) attended the fire. It’s not yet known whether the engine failure and fire are related. All flights in and out of Sydney were halted as a result of the fire.

Earlier today a Brisbane-bound flight made an emergency-return to Sydney Airport, landing safely just after 1pm This departure of aircraft coincided with a grass fire along the eastern side of the airport’s parallel runway, which was brought under control by teams from the Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting Service. It’s not clear at this stage if the two incidents are linked and investigations are continuing. With the safe arrival of the aircraft, Sydney Airport’s priority is to conduct a full inspection of its parallel runway and to return it to service as quickly as possible

Sydney Airport spokesperson

One of our flights to Brisbane experienced a suspected engine failure after take-off from Sydney Airport this afternoon. After circling for a short period of time, the aircraft landed safely at Sydney Airport. Our pilots are highly trained to handle situations like this and the aircraft landed safely after the appropriate procedures were conducted. We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support. We will also be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue

Qantas Chief pilot Richard Tobiano

FRNSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry told local media, “We’ve got a number of fire trucks on scene working to contain or extinguish a grass fire, a pretty large grass fire adjacent to the third runway. Fortunately due to the layout it is contained, it’s not going to go anywhere. But we do need to get this fire out so the airport can resume its operations again.”

A Sydney Airport spokesperson said “Sydney Airport’s main runway is operational, however, passengers should expect some delays and we thank everyone for their patience.”

In a further update, Qantas has confirmed the engine had an contained failure.

Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine and confirmed it was a contained engine failure. While customers would have heard a loud bang, there was not an explosion

Qantas spokesperson

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Qantas flight #QF1 departed Sydney Airport this Saturday, September 21 2024 at 15:25 AEST for a scheduled flight of 8 hours to Singapore then 13 hours to London.

The Airbus A380 (registration VH-OQJ) departed from Terminal T1, gate 10 then took off from runway 34L and stopped the climb at 22,000 ft altitude.

The crew contacted ATC and requested an immediate return due to a medical emergency on board.

The flight returned to SYD airport at 16:10 AEST, only 45 minutes after departure and performed a heavy landing on the same 34R runway and taxied to the gate.

Due to quick return and heavy landing, a possible refuel and brakes check will delay the flight #QF1.

The airline is now scheduling a 5-hour delay with new departure at 19:30 from Sydney.

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