Fourth Qantas flight turns back since engine incident safety scare

A BIRD and a bolt of lightning were the latest problems to strike Qantas, the airline said yesterday, causing the fourth flight turnaround since an engine blowout on an Airbus superjumbo caused a global safety scare.

The string of incidents on Qantas’ older fleet of Boeing planes is unrelated to the A380 scare and were caused by various glitches and uncontrollable events that are not uncommon to any major carrier, the airline and a commercial aviation analyst said. But the events have happened in an unusual cluster and have drawn extra attention following the superjumbo blowout.

In the latest incident, a Boeing 747 carrying 171 passengers bound for Sydney turned back to Johannesburg after a bird slammed into one of the jumbo’s four engines shortly after takeoff late on Tuesday, Qantas spokesman Tom Woodward said.