A Qantas Boeing 747 with 431 people on board landed safely in Singapore late Friday after an engine caught fire minutes after it took off from the city-state, the airline and a passenger said.
Just one day earlier a Qantas Airbus A380 superjumbo jet made an emergency landing at the same airport due to an engine blowout.
Qantas said in a statement later that flight QF6 from Singapore to Sydney had an issue with its number 1 engine — one of four engines.
Qantas said the captain of the jumbo jet sought priority clearance to return to Singapore as a precaution. There are 412 passengers, three flight crew and 16 cabin crew.
After the aircraft returned to Singapore, the passengers were taken in a bus to a hotel for an overnight stay. They are expected to leave Saturday.
According to the Qantas website, Flight QF6 is a Boeing 747-400, which is fitted with four Rolls-Royce RB211-524G-T engines. The daily flight operates between Frankfurt and Sydney with a stopover in Singapore.