The engines on the plane go bang, bang, bang!

My last scheduled day in Singapore was relatively uneventful. However, I did have a chance encounter with a U.S. Marine who happens to wakeboard behind a boat in Seattle and was staying in my dorm. On a spur of the moment we grabbed some boardies and a bit of cash and jumped on the MRT.
After a while of wandering the streets of Bedok to find the right bus we got on the rattely old thing straight to Ski360. The people there were friendly and it was so cheap to ride. I couldn’t believe it - £10 for an hours riding at night with a hire board and life jacket. The best part was that you could hit all the obstacles on the hire boards which was good fun J It did make me laugh that an adult man-size board was a 134!! It was my first night ride which I really enjoyed – made better by a lack of wetsuits – and the cable is in a sea lagoon. It’s a nice set up there so if you get the opportunity to go, I say do it!!

Back to Changi airport on Thursday morning after a 5am wake up. Nothing much to say about that, so we got on the plane and took off smoothly. About 20 minutes into the flight, a fecking huge bang caused the plane to wobble a bit. Peering out the window, we can see that 3 holes have been ripped into the wing of the plane – about 3m from where I was sitting! Incredibly, no-one panics and within seconds the Captain is speaking to the plane letting us know that they are assessing the situation.

We are then told that the engine had failed but we had too much fuel to land the plane immediately. Sitting for 1hr30 on a plane that’s only got 3 engines, and a huge hole in the wing, while we circle Indonesia and Singapore is not a pleasant experience. I have to say that the crew and everyone on board acted very calmly, people accepted there was nothing we could do so many slept or read. Unfortunately, the entertainment system had failed earlier on in the flight so no films to take our mind off the situation.

After circling for long enough to lose enough fuel to land, we start our descent. The holes in the wing mean that the wing flaps couldn’t come up to help slow the landing. It was a very fast approach to the runway and the brakes were put on sharply in order for us to stop right at the end of the runway. We sat here for another half an hour while they tried to stop the fuel leak and stop engine 1 from running. The fire engines and police were there and all electrical systems had to be turned off to minimise the risk of a spark. Any spark would have set us up in flames as we were doused in fuel!

Eventually we got evacuated off, having to leave all hand luggage on the plane. We could take passports, and boarding passes, and a little bit of money but nothing else.  The entire flight was held in a room in the terminal, fed food and water. A Zara Phillips was on the flight as well as the Sri Lankan Basketball team! The news then came on and we saw that the flight was a headline story. Apparently the first reports were that we had crash landed in the sea in Indonesia, as that was where the engine cover was found. Thankfully this was not the case, but we were shocked to see the extent of the damage to the plane as we had obviously been shielded from the worst sights.

In the airport, I got talking to two girls called Karen who are both travelling on their own and we have kept each other company throughout!! Quantas organised hotels for us to stay in last night – it was very smart and all free J I’m currently back in the airport waiting for the gate to open for boarding.

Let’s hope this flight goes better!!

Peace xx