An engine on a Qantas superjumbo flying from London to Sydney via Singapore exploded mid-flight, blasting debris over western Indonesia.

The
Qantas flight QF32, which had 459 people aboard made an emergency landing at Changi Airport in Singapore, from where it had just taken off 15 minutes earlier.

Six
fire engines swarmed around the Airbus A380 double-decker jumbo when it was safely landed with smoke trailing from the engine.

The engine closest to
the fuselage on the left wing had visible burn marks and was missing a
section of plate that would have been painted with the red kangaroo
logo of the airline. The upper part of the left wing also appeared to
have suffered some damage.
No one was injured, however many of the passengers, most of whom are British, are being offered counselling.
Passenger Rosemary Hegardy, 60, from Sydney, said she heard two bangs and saw flames from her window.

“There were flames – yellow flames came out, and debris came off … you could see black things shooting through the smoke, like bits of debris,” she said.

German passenger Ulf Waschbusch said people were “surprisingly calm”.

“We are not going crazy at all,” he said.

“The crew helped tremendously. I felt in good hands. Qantas did a great job in keeping us safe.”

Passengers were to stay in Singapore hotels overnight.

Witnesses on the ground on Batam Island, Indonesia, said they heard a “very loud explosion”.

People were photographed holding pieces of the engine cover they had found on the ground.

“I
thought I heard an explosion and when I looked up I saw a plane going
round and round and there was smoke coming out of its tail,” one
witness said. “Then three or four pieces of metal fell out of the sky”.

Qantas has now suspended all A380s in its fleet after the dramatic engine failure.
“We will suspend those A380 services until we are completely confident that Qantas safety requirements have been met,” said the carrier’s chief executive, Alan Joyce.
“It’s a significant engine failure so we do take our safety reputation and our safety standards unbelievably seriously.

“We’re not going to take any risks with passenger safety.”

Joyce said the incident appeared to have been an “uncontained engine failure” but that Qantas would conduct a detailed investigation along with manufacturer Airbus and engine manufacturer Rolls Royce.