Qantas Plane Bound For Melbourne Returns To LAX After Engine Mishap

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) – A Qantas Airways flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne was forced to turn around and return to Los Angeles International Airport for an emergency landing early Saturday morning following an engine mishap, according to a report.

Qantas Flight 94 departed LAX at 10:21 p.m. Friday and returned to Los Angeles at 2:56 a.m. Saturday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

Qantas spokesman Thomas Woodward told CBS2 in a statement Saturday that the Airbus A380 experienced a loss in power in one of its four engines and turned around.

"Friday night's QF94 A380 service from Los Angeles to Melbourne turned back to LA because of an issue with one of the aircraft's four engines," Woodward wrote. "The pilots followed standard procedure, shut down the engine, and the flight landed normally in LA at around 3am local time on Saturday. Engineers are inspecting the aircraft."

The replacement flight was scheduled to leave Los Angeles at 1:45 p.m. Saturday, Woodward said.

Woodward told CBS2 that unconfirmed reports that the engine had caught fire were "not correct." He said the cause of the issue is still under investigation.

Later in the day, some passengers said the crew handled things so calmly they didn't know anything was wrong.

"Most of us didn't notice what had happened," said passenger Rob Dines, "I was still awake but I had my headphones on listening to some music."

Qantas said it was able to find hotel rooms for about a third of their passengers.