AirAsia flight experiences engine issues during take-off from Perth

An AirAsia flight traveling from Perth (PER/YPPH) to Denpasar (DPS/WADD) has been forced to abort its climb and circle around after experiencing “engine issues” during take-off. On Sunday flight QZ545 departed Perth from runway 21 at 6.43pm and climbed to 5,300 before leveling off.

Travellers said it was not long after take-off before they heard loud bangs and saw flames coming from an engine.
“All the alarms all went off, and then it was just totally dead,” one passenger said.
“No lights, nothing.”

Another said, “it was like an explosion”.
“You could see the actual flames, and this happened about six times,” they said.
“At first we thought it was lightning.”

A third said they “really thought we were about to crash and die”.
“It was so scary because the plane started going down, up and down,” they told reporters.

The Airbus A320 made 4 circuits around Rottnest Island (west of the airport) and another two circuits (east of the airport) before returning to the airport landing on runway 21 exactly an hour later where they were met by fire trucks waiting all along the runway.

“Passengers were rescheduled onto flights the next morning at 3.30am and 6.30am,” a Perth Airport spokesperson said.

Aircraft Information:
Airline: Indonesia AirAsia
Code: QZ/AWQ

Aircraft: Airbus A320-216

Registration: PK-AXY
Serial Number: 5359
Engines: 2 x CFMI CFM56-5B6/3
First Flew: 24/10/2012
Age: 12.8 Years