Qantas airplane carrying Springboks faces engine failure; turns back to safety – Rugby update
South African Rugby Union team, Springboks’ plane experienced engine heating problems and had abort its flight just two hours after the take off on July 16. The team was scheduled to land in Sydney on flight QF64 around 2 p.m. local time. Springboks are scheduled to meet Australia in their inaugural match of the Tri-Nations, kicking off on July 23.
The Qantas Airways QF64 flight aborted after one of the four engines of the craft was found to be overheating, which led to an emergency landing at the OR Tambo International airport in Johannesburg.
According to a South African Rugby Union (SARU) representative, “The Qantas flight on which the team was travelling was forced to return to OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg less than two hours after takeoff following the overheating and failure of engine number three on their Boeing 747,”
About the emergency landing which was made on Friday, Springboks’ skipper John Smit tweeted, “Wow, just had to do an emergency landing at OR Tambo, we lost an engine after take off but safely landed now! My second safe emergency landing!”
The representative from Qantas Airways, Olivia Wirth, while speaking about the crisis situation explained that when one of the four engines had over heated, accompanied bu augmented vibrations. The pilot followed the regular procedure of shutting down the affected engine and continued to fly safely with three engines in order.
It was further clarified that the news circulating in media about the explosion in the plane were all untrue and there was no instance of crash landing as the aircraft landed normally. Qantas airways had arranged for the passengers’ accommodation and repast.
Andy Colquhoun, the SARU representative, confirmed that all members of the Boks’ squad were fine along with all the officials accompanying the squad but it is not confirmed when the team will fly for Sydney again. It was later told to newspaper reporters that a new plane would be sent from Sydney to fly in the team to Australia.
By Sunday evening the Boks’ squad managed to arrive in Sydney, 31 hours after their scheduled time.
However, this flight scare episode will have a positive effect on the Springboks as Peter De Villiers, the coach of Springboks stated, “Things like this draw people closer together and hopefully that'll be the effect on this team.”
De Villiers, while acknowledging the fact that the flight scare episode was disturbing for everyone, said that the major focus for everyone will continue to be to concentrate on their game with Australia on July 23.
De Villiers further added while speaking about returning to the training sessions of the Boks, “That's our only focus now and it'll be good to get back onto the training ground on Monday.”
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