Jet catches fire during emergency landing

Singapore, June 27

Over 240 people on board a Singapore Airlines flight to Milan had a narrow escape today as their plane caught fire while making a dramatic emergency landing here after the jet was forced to turn back due to a mid-air engine problem.

All passengers aboard Flight SQ368 are safe, the airline and airport officials said as the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, with flames leaping from the plane’s wing, touched down at Changi Airport.

The flight departed from Changi Airport for Milan at 2.05 am today but about two hours into the flight, the pilot announced that there was a problem in the engine and the flight had to return to Singapore.

In a statement issued later, the SIA said Flight SQ368 was en route from Singapore to Milan when an “engine oil warning message” forced it to turn back. “The aircraft’s right engine caught fire after the aircraft touched down at Changi Airport at 6:50 am,” it said.

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“The fire was put out by airport emergency services and there were no injuries to the 222 passengers and 19 crew on board. Passengers disembarked through stairs and were transported to the terminal building by bus,” it said.

Changi Airport also issued a statement saying that the fire was extinguished “within minutes” by the Airport Emergency Service team, which was already on standby.

According to Mamta Jain, whose husband was on board the flight, the plane’s engine “exploded and the right wing was burning” while it was landing. A passenger posted a harrowing account and a video of the engine fire on Facebook. The video clip, shot from a window seat, showed huge flames and smoke engulfing the right engine. “I just escaped death!” Lee Bee Yee said in a post that accompanied the video clip. — PTI