Sydney, Australia

A Qantas flight returned minutes after taking off from Sydney Airport due to an engine failure. As it landed, a fire burnt through grassland next to a runway which was reportedly sparked by the airplane.

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After flight QF520 took off before 1 pm on Friday, passengers heard a loud bang which turned out to be the sound of an engine exploding. Passenger Georgina Lewis told 9News that "one of the engines appeared to have gone."

The pilot then came up to the passengers and them that there was a "problem with a right-hand engine on take-off." 

The plane was a Boeing 737 and was flying to Brisbane with 174 passengers onboard.

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According to Fire and Rescue NSW, as the plane's engine failed and blasted, the grassfire next to the runway caught fire. Meanwhile, Sydney Airport did not confirm whether the two incidents were linked. A spokesperson for the airport said it is investigating if the fire and engine malfunction are linked.

The spokesperson said, "Earlier today a Brisbane-bound flight made an emergency return to Sydney Airport, landing safely just after 1 pm."

"This departure of aircraft coincided with a grass fire along the eastern side of the airport's parallel runway, which was brought under control by teams from the Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting Service."

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"It's not clear at this stage if the two incidents are linked and investigations are continuing."

Did engine failure cause fire? 

They added that Sydney Airport will conduct a full inspection of its parallel runway on priority and work to return it to service as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Qantas denies there was an explosion and says it was a "contained engine failure".

"Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine and confirmed it was a contained engine failure," A spokesperson for Qantas said.

They added that even though the passengers heard a loud bang, "there was no explosion".

Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano also talked about the incident and said that their pilots are trained to handle such situations. He added that "after circling for a short period of time, the aircraft landed safely at Sydney Airport" after the appropriate procedures were conducted.

He also said that they would reach out to the passengers and provide support as they understandably had a "distressing experience". 

FRNSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry said that a number of fire trucks are on the scene working to contain or extinguish a grass fire, which he said was "pretty large".

The airport has informed passengers to expect delays as only the main runway is operational.