QantasLink Plane Catches Fire With 24 Passengers Onboard Days After Carrier Gets Shonky Award

Passengers of a QantasLink flight lived through their worst nightmare when the plane they were on caught fire upon landing.

Flight QF2265, which originated in Lord Howe Island in Australia, caught fire Tuesday afternoon after it landed at Sydney Airport with 24 passengers on board.

Every passenger was evacuated "following reports of flames near the tires after the aircraft had landed safely," according to 9News. All airport operations were suspended while the plane made a safe landing.

The fire broke out near the tires at about 5:30 p.m., but no smoke was seen in the cabin, news.au.com reported. Airport fire and ambulance crews were called to the scene.

QantasLink is a regional brand of Qantas Airlines in Australia. The carrier's chief executive officer, John Gissing, confirmed to the media that all passengers on the Dash-8 aircraft disembarked safely through the front stairs.

"Passengers on a flight from Lord Howe Island to Sydney were evacuated following reports of flames near the tires after the aircraft had landed safely," Gissing said, as per the outlet.

"We thank the crew and passengers for disembarking the aircraft in a calm and orderly manner. Airport fire crews attended, passengers will be bussed to the terminal and engineers will inspect the aircraft," he added.

Touted as Australia's national carrier, Qantas has faced criticism after heightened incidents involving miscommunication and canceled flights, including the ordeal of a Melbourne couple and their kid who missed their connecting flight because of the airline's delay. The family's luggage was also misplaced, and they were told their hotel booking, which was processed via the airline, wasn't made for them. For their replacement flight, they were allocated seats that did not exist. They traveled with another carrier for the rest of the journey.

Qantas was recently shamed in the CHOICE 2022 Shonky Awards, which puts a spotlight on "the products and services that have added distress, disappointment and difficulty" in the lives of Australians. CHOICE said Qantas was a "disappointment" since the pandemic hit and was "going out of its way to win a Shonky Award," 7News reported.

The airline hit back at CHOICE's accusations, claiming, "We had several months of poor performance earlier in the year, but it's improved significantly since August and we're back to our pre-COVID level of service," according to the outlet.

"We've been very transparent with our performance figures, both good and bad, but Choice is using figures that are just wrong," it added, noting that CHOICE was overlooking the impact that the pandemic had on the aviation industry.