A passenger on-board a Qantas flight that had to issue a mayday call had no idea what was going on.
Nigel Morris was on flight QF144 from Auckland to Sydney when the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after losing an engine.
The plane, which had 145 passengers on-board, was able to land safely in Sydney on Wednesday.
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A Qantas spokesperson said the plane experienced an issue with one of its engines about an hour from its destination.
“While a mayday was initially issued, this has now been downgraded to a PAN (possible assistance needed),” the spokesperson said, adding more information would be made available once the aircraft had been assessed by engineers.
Mr Morris said it wasn’t until there was a “major jolt” and the drop from 36,000 feet to 20,000 feet in about 40 minutes that it was “evident” something was wrong.
“But none of us were sure what,” he told the Today show.
“There were no announcements mid-flight. The first we were alerted to it was about 10 minutes out when they made the announcements about preparing the cabin for landing.”
At that point, he said the pilot announced the plane had “lost some functions” with one of the engines.
Mr Morris said he was concerned about what his wife must be thinking – as well as the family and friends of other passengers.
And the moment the aircraft landed and they were able to switch their phones on, he was bombarded with texts from his wife.
“I turned mine on and there were lots of messages and calls from Kath saying, ‘Oh, my God, what’s happening?’” Mr Morris said.
It was only when the passenger checked the news websites after landing that he realised the plane had resorted to sending out a mayday call, Nine News reported.
“Personally, I would have liked a little bit of knowledge,” he said.
While he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know if there was a mayday call as it usually means something dramatic, “a little bit of information probably would have been helpful”.
However, Mr Morris praised the pilot and cabin crew for doing a “great job” and making sure passengers landed safely.
Following the incident, Qantas First Officer and AIPA Vice President Mark Hofmeyer said Qantas pilots are “well-trained” and make “difficult look easy”.
“I’m not going to comment on what they did because I think the outcome’s fantastic for everyone,” Mr Hofmeyer told Sky News Australia.
He said every situation is “different” and if the pilots decided to make a mayday call he would “back” their decision “100 per cent”.
“It’s quite amusing – I was actually in the Brisbane sim building yesterday … I jumped in the sim and we did a bunch of engine failures then for training.
“We do four simulator sessions every year – we often cover engine failures.”