Qantas plane turns back to Melbourne after crew notice fumes
A Qantas flight heading from Melbourne to Perth was forced to turn back this morning after crew and passengers noticed the smell of fumes from the cockpit.
Qantas staff detected the smell on the flight deck shortly after the Boeing 737 took off from Melbourne Airport at about 9.50am.
“Following standard procedure, the captain declared a priority landing (PAN) and returned to Melbourne,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
About an hour into the journey the plane returned to Melbourne and landed
“She said we had enough to get back to Melbourne but if we kept going we might not have had enough oxygen to make it the whole way,” one woman who was on the plane told 9News.
“I sat there crying the whole time, I was freaking out.”
The plane returned to Melbourne without incident.
The aircraft has been grounded as engineers inspect it to figure out what went wrong.
A spokesperson for Melbourne Airport said a “precautionary emergency response” was issued for the Qantas Boeing 737 after it reported issues shortly before 10.30am.
“The aircraft landed without incident and taxied to the gate normally,” the airport spokesperson said.
The passengers on the returned flight caught a replacement back to Perth this afternoon.
