Passengers have described their horror as a Malaysia Airlines plane started ‘violently shaking’ after losing engine power.
Flight MH122 from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur was close to the West Australian coastline when it was forced to divert to Alice Springs on Thursday afternoon.
The plane was forced to make an emergency landing as crew members were told to brace for impact.
Passengers were terrified as a Malaysia Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Alice Springs (pictured)
The MH122 flight bound for Kuala Lumpur from Sydney was only four hours into its flight when it was diverted (pictured)
One passenger said: ‘There was quite scary. It we were sitting right on the wing in the aisle and we could hear the motor stop. So the engine completely stopped on the engine completely stopped on the left-hand side.
‘It was a real gravelly noise and then the aeroplane just started shaking. The staff seemed to be rushing around for a while.
Passenger Maryna Delport Evetts said engine problems had been blamed for the diversion.
‘So just when you think this would never happen to you or it just happens in the movies, on our flight back home, four hours into the journey we had engine failure,’ Ms Evetts wrote Facebook.
‘We turned back and we are now sitting at the Airport in Alice Springs. Not too sure when we will be leaving but hey ho, we are on terra firma.
‘Not a good feeling 10,000 feet up in the air.’
Chris Kanani, the husband of a passenger aboard, told ABC his wife described the experience as ‘hell’.
‘The scariest part was that once the engine started to make a loud disturbing noise, the flight attendants all seemed nervous and clueless,’ one passenger wrote on social media
After a ‘massive vibration’ shook the plane, the crew told passengers to ‘brace for impact’, Donna Edwards told 9 News
‘She said she was on the loo when she started hearing loud banging noises from the right-hand side of the plane and that’s when all it started,’ Mr Kanani said.
‘It was like hell this flight and they were told to be ready for an emergency landing.’
Another passenger told the ABC there was ‘very violent shaking’ during the flight and passengers had braced for a rough landing.
Malaysia Airlines said safety was its number one priority, and it would provide more information on the technical issue when it was available.
The airline said the plane was forced to land in the Northern Territory for ‘technical reasons’ in a statement.
After a ‘massive vibration’ shook the plane, the crew told passengers to ‘brace for impact’, Donna Edwards told 9 News.
Another passenger thought she was ‘going to die’ when she felt the ‘massive vibrations’
‘One of the crew stopped near us and one guy said ‘are we crashing or are we landing’,’ Ms Edwards said.
‘The crew member said ‘I don’t know’.’
‘We were just bracing for the worst. I thought I was going to die.’
The flight, which left Sydney Airport at 1.06pm, landed in Alice Springs at 5.48pm (local time) although it was scheduled to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 6.30pm the same day.
The aircraft, which has 290 seats, was diverted after an engine fault according to China Plus.
Malaysia Airlines released a statement saying ‘safety at all times’ was their ‘number one priority’.
‘All affected passengers have been given hotel accommodation, meals and transportation,’ the airline wrote on social media.
Malaysia Airlines said that ‘safety at all times’ was their ‘number one priority’