Malaysia Airlines Passengers Describe 'Hell' Of Emergency Landing At Alice Springs

'I thought I was going to die'


Article heading image for Malaysia Airlines Passengers Describe 'Hell' Of Emergency Landing At Alice Springs

It was a terrifying time for 224 passengers on board a Malaysia Airlines flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur yesterday, after it was forced to make an emergency landing at Alice Springs. 

MH122 was four hours into its journey when a technical problem lead the pilot to turn the plane around, and return as far as Alice Springs. 

 

Passengers have described the panic, after one of the engines made a loud bang and the entire aircraft started violently shaking. 

"It was quite scary. We were actually sitting right on the wing, in the aisle, and we could hear the motor stop. So, the engine completely stopped on the left hand side," said one on Nine. 

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"It was a real gravelly noise, a really high pitched noise, and then the aircraft just started shaking. The staff seemed to be rusing around for a while and then about 10 minutes or so later, they came over [the speakers] saying about getting into the brace position for the emergency landing. Quite scary. You start thinking 'oh my god, is this it?!,'" said another. 

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Another passenger told Nine that she overheard a crew member asking 'are we crashing or are we landing?'. In response, the crew member's colleague said 'I don't know'.

The airline released a statement overnight, saying the plane experienced technical fault but safety was never compromised. 

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 The passengers will be back on their way to Malaysia from this afternoon, with a replacement aircraft already organised. 

Claire Sherwood

18 January 2018

Article by:

Claire Sherwood




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