A Malaysian Airlines flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur was forced to make an emergency landing in remote outback Australia on Thursday after running into “technical difficulties.”
The 200 passengers on board MH122 were told to “brace for impact” after the Airbus A330-300 was diverted to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory after suffering a fault in one engine.
The flight was about four hours into its journey when a “massive vibration” was felt.
Donna Edwards told 9News: “The lights had just been turned off and everyone was settled in. All of a sudden a massive vibration, the whole plane was shaking.”
Sanjeev Pandev told the BBC: “It was shaking and vibrating and the noise was getting louder and louder.
“Some people were praying and had tears in their eyes. It was a really terrifying moment.”
Writing on Facebook Maryna Delport Evetts said: “So just when you think this would never happen to you or it just happens in movies, our flight back home, four hours into the journey we had engine failure, shit shit shit… Not a good feeling 10,000 feet up in the air.”
In a statement, Malaysia Airlines said: “Safety was not at any time compromised and the commanding captain decided to divert the flight for technical assistance.”