Nine passengers sustained injuries when an Air China flight experienced an engine fire, prompting an emergency landing in Singapore on Sunday. It was reported that there were a total of 155 individuals on board, including crew members, on flight CA403, which had departed from Chengdu in southwestern China.
Numerous images and videos of the flight’s emergency landing circulated on social media platforms.
A user on X (formerly Twitter), who claimed to be one of the most widely followed creators of aviation content in China, shared a video showing passengers exiting the distressed aircraft via an emergency slide onto the tarmac.
“Pratt & Whitney engine on fire, Air China flight evacuated on Singapore runway. CA403 TFU-SIN squawking 7700 shortly before landing at Singapore due to PW1100G engine fire. Heavy smoke in cabin, crew evacuated the plane on runway. The aircraft is a 4-year-old A320neo B-305J,” the user posted on X.
Another user remarked, “It’s one of the +30 aircraft equipped with PW1100 engines in the fleet. The model has been experiencing design flaws leading to various emergency landings recently.”
Meanwhile, in a statement on Facebook, Singapore’s Changi Airport stated, “Flight CA403 from the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu ‘encountered smoke in the forward cargo hold and lavatory’ while en route to the city-state.”
The statement added that the plane landed at around 4:15 pm (0815 GMT), and “all passengers and crew have evacuated safely.” “The fire in the left engine has been extinguished,” the statement further read.
As per the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), the runway at Changi Airport was briefly closed, and one aircraft was diverted to the nearby island of Batam in Indonesia, as reported by news agency AFP.
The Transport Safety Investigation Bureau is currently looking into the incident and has reached out to its Chinese counterpart for assistance.
