Jetstar A320 VH-VQJ declared a PAN emergency this morning at 9.20 departing Cairns as JST-931 Carins to Brisbane
VQJ reported to ATC a total hydraulic failure and was returning to Cairns for an emergency landing, The aircraft flew north of Cairns to position CODIE and did a number of orbits to work out what systems he had and what he didn't have.
Pilot told ATC that he had lost hydraulics and that they would find it on the runway !
The Cairns airport went into full emergency mode and all services were on stand by.
VQJ landed around 30 mins later, after tell ATC that the landing roll would be longer than normal.
External indications of a malfunction were limited to the center landing gear doors still down , and the flight spoilers remained up even after the aircraft stopped at the gate, VQJ was followed by multi fire units from the airport service.
I interviewed pax after the flight and all told of numerous grinding sounds followed by an announcement by the pilot that the landing gear would not retract, and not too much more.
Pax left on VH-JQE that was to do the Singapore run , JQE departed to Brisbane at 12.44
My story should run high on the TEN Brisbane news at 5.00pm today..
|