An accelerating Qantas plane has caused extensive damage to a Perth runway, forcing its closure and emergency repairs.
Video of Singapore-bound QF71’s takeoff at about midday on Sunday shows the plane increasing speed as a large part of Perth airport’s main runway lifts up behind the plane.
Plane spotter Mitchell Booth captured the moment the Airbus A330 accelerated, with pieces of tarmac and dust flying into the air, apparently lifted by the thrust from the plane’s engines.
The airport had recently resurfaced the now-damaged section of the runway, a spokesperson confirmed.
“The incident impacted around 20 metres of pavement and occurred on a 110-metre section which had just been overlaid as part of a planned renewal of the 3440-metre runway. As this was the first section completed, no other parts of the runway are impacted”, the spokesperson said on Monday.
Work was ongoing to rectify the “pavement failure”.
Booth, who is 13, told the ABC that the damage was “concerning” and theorised the plane’s weight may have played a part.
“It’s clearly caused by this new resurfacing, which is slightly concerning considering this is only the start of the resurfacing and it’s already having issues,” he told ABC Radio Perth.
“When they did increase thrust they still had their brakes set, which isn’t too rare or anything but it’s not what all aircraft do, they often do it when they are heavy,” he said.
“This particular aircraft did rotate decently late down the runway, so it did need that power and due to the aircraft having so much thrust with it at the point, that probably contributed to that particular bit of concrete lifting up into the air.”
The airport spokesperson said the “pavement damage” forced a closure of the airport’s main runway.
“Following a short full closure, the main runway was reopened to operate some departing services, while urgent pavement maintenance works were undertaken,” the spokesperson said.
Initial maintenance works were completed early on Monday morning, the spokesperson said, adding that one freight service made a diversion during the time with all other services continuing to operate safely.
The airport’s cross runway remained fully operational throughout.
