'That was our engine'
2007-11-07 21:24
Cape Town - A Nationwide Boeing 737 carrying 106 passengers made an emergency landing at Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday afternoon after an engine fell off during takeoff.
Flight CE723, which had been bound for Johannesburg, touched down safely after airport fire and rescue services hurriedly cleared the debris from the runway.
The airline said in a terse statement that the two-engined plane left Cape Town on schedule at 15:50.
"At take-off it was reported that the right hand engine separated from the wing. The aircraft continued to climb out.
"The aircraft returned and landed at Cape Town International Airport without further incident."
The airline said no passengers or crew were injured. The passengers were taken to a holding area where Nationwide representatives and trauma counsellors were on hand to lend assistance.
Huge bang
One of the passengers, Pretoria businesswoman Ronel Derman, 46, told Sapa she had been in a seat directly over the wing.
As the plane took off, the man next to her, in the window seat, was looking out of the window.
"I heard this huge bang, and he said 'that's our engine that's just fallen off'. I couldn't believe it. He had to repeat it to me," she said.
"The plane started to shake a bit, but what was amazing was the staff and passengers: everybody was so calm. There was no hysteria, no nothing, it was amazing.
"The guy next to me seemed to know something about planes. He said, don't worry: the plane will go with one engine. So I thought, that's okay."
She said that while the plane was making a wide turn and dumping fuel, the cabin crew took the passengers through the emergency procedures, getting them to take off their shoes and practice bending down.
"They didn't know what to expect. It could have been a hard landing. It could have been anything," she said.
'Soft landing'
"It's quite scary: flying around quite a lot, you don't listen to the emergency procedures. Suddenly you realise, I need to know what to do.
"But when we landed it was a soft landing, like you would think there was nothing wrong with the plane."
She said that when the plane had come to a stop surrounded by fire engines, the pilot walked into the cabin, and all the passengers cheered.
But she admitted she herself had been "very panicky" during the landing.
"I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life, ever," she said.
At 19:00, having declined counselling, she was waiting for a British Airways flight to Johannesburg.
'I need a drink'
"We'll see how that goes. I hope they've got a drink, because I need one now," she said.
The Civil Aviation Authority's executive manager for air safety investigations, Gilbert Thwala, said CAA investigators were on their way from Johannesburg to Cape Town to investigate the incident.
Airports Company spokesperson Deidre Hendricks said that after the plane took off, the runway was closed while fire and rescue staff cleared "debris" from the plane.
"The runway remained closed for the aircraft's return, which took place at approximately 16:28," she said.
The fire and rescue team then made a thorough sweep of the runway to make sure that no further debris was dropped during the landing.
At 17:00 the runway was declared safe for use. In the interim, six flights were diverted to George airport.
A caller to radio station Cape Talk who landed on a flight just after the Nationwide plane took off, said he saw parts of the engine lying on the runway as his plane came in.
Phase three alert
"They took off and left the engine behind," he said.
City of Cape Town disaster management spokesperson Johan Minnie said the city's emergency services responded to a "phase three" alert, issued on the basis that there could be an accident.
Last week the airport was shut down for several hours when an SAA Airbus became stuck in sand on the edge of a runway after landing.
- SAPA