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A commercial airplane heading to Sri Lanka had to perform an unexpected landing at Melbourne airport due to the presence of smoke in the cabin.
The Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL605 landed at the Melbourne airport less than an hour after departing from Tullamarine on Monday evening.
During the flight, passengers aboard the Airbus A330-30 allegedly witnessed and detected smoke in the cabin and observed additional smoke originating from the cockpit. As a result, the captain declared an emergency approximately thirty minutes after takeoff.
The plane flew in a loop for nearly an hour before heading back to the Melbourne airport at approximately 7:20pm, prompted by the emergency signal of 7700. This code signals that the plane requires immediate attention from air traffic control in order to land due to an emergency situation.
As per the policies of Melbourne Airport, a local standby was announced and emergency services were notified as a precautionary measure, according to a statement released by the airport.
The plane successfully completed its landing and all passengers disembarked without any issues.
Sri Lankan Airlines has attributed the incident to a “technical issue” and a team of technicians is currently evaluating the situation.
Dennis Bunnik, a YouTuber who was on the flight, shared that he was recording a review when he noticed that the plane began its descent approximately 30 minutes before reaching Melbourne.
According to the speaker on 9News, the captain announced “prepare for landing” and the air operations ran smoothly, including the emergency vehicles.
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“It has taken several hours to figure out the situation, determining whether we could take a flight to Sri Lanka tonight or if we would have to find accommodations,” he explained. Despite some initial confusion, it was ultimately decided that we would be staying in Melbourne.
He commended the crew on X for handling the situation effectively and mentioned that the captain notified them of an air conditioning problem.
Source: independent.co.uk
