A Qantas Airways flight from Sydney to Perth was forced to turn back and evacuate on Saturday after the plane filled with smoke.
Qantas confirmed flight 575 headed for Perth was forced to return to Sydney shortly after takeoff due to a hydraulic issue.
One passenger tweeted about the incident, saying the situation was “terrifying.”
Just had to evacuate my flight to Perth after engineering issues. Everyone had to exit the plane via slide onto Sydney tarmac after the cabin filled with smoke and the captain screamed evacuate. Terrifying.
— Ally Kemp (@politic_ally) December 14, 2019
Some passengers evacuated the plane via the emergency slides, while others walked out of the regular exits.
Another passenger on the flight, Niamh Champion, told The Sun newspaper, “And next thing he (pilot) goes, ‘evacuate, evacuate, evacuate’, like in a calm but firm, loud voice. So instantly everyone jumps off and they’re thinking, ‘Oh my God. I thought there was smoke, or a fire or, you know, something was happening.’”
In a statement obtained by the Guardian, newspaper a spokesperson for Qantas said, “Once back at the gate, the captain made the decision to evacuate the aircraft as a precaution and three emergency slides were deployed. Passengers were evacuated through both the slides and normal exits.”
