Passengers of a Sri Lankan Airlines will board a rescheduled flight to Colombo later today after an emergency return.
A SriLankan Airlines flight UL605 that departed Tullamarine at 6.30 pm was forced to turn back to Melbourne yesterday after smoke started filling the cabin.
A Melbourne Airport spokesperson told media that crews on board the Airbus A330-300 requested a return to the airport shortly after its departure.
It is reported that the Airbus A330 was forced to turn back shortly after take-off when passengers and crew began seeing and smelling smoke.
After circling for some time the aircraft touched down at Tullamarine at 7:20pm as the emergency squawk code of 7700 was sounded.
A statement from the Melbourne airport said:
“In line with Melbourne Airport procedures, a local standby was declared, with emergency services responding as a precaution. The aircraft landed safely and without incident. Passengers disembarked normally.”
This emergency call meant the flight quickly became the most tracked flight, with nearly 10,000 people across the world tracking it on FlightRadar24.com.
Aviation YouTuber Dennis Bunnik praised the flight crew’s handling of the incident. However, some passengers were left frustrated by the delays that followed.
Bunnik ended up dropping his duty free while waiting for more details. He added some things could have been handled better in the Melbourne airport.
It is understood that SriLankan Airlines passengers were provided with hotel accommodation before the flight being rescheduled.
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