SYDNEY — A Qantas Airways flight bound for Brisbane suffered an engine failure after take-off on Nov 8 and circled for a short period before returning safely to Sydney Airport, the Australian airline said.

Passengers heard a loud bang from one of the aircraft's two engines, the nation's media reported.

A journalist with national broadcaster ABC, who was on the flight, said there was a "sharp shudder" on the plane after the loud noise. "It was apparent something had happened with one of the engines, then the plane seemed to labour to get off the ground or get any altitude," Mark Willacy said.

Qantas said its engineers conducted a preliminary inspection and confirmed a contained engine failure, meaning the internal engine parts stayed within the protective housing designed to keep them safely enclosed.

Uncontained engine failures, where engine fragments fly out of this housing, can result in serious damage to the main body of an aircraft.

Qantas flight QF520 took off at 12.35pm (9.35am, Singapore time), circled a few times and diverted to land in Sydney, tracking data from Flightradar24 showed.

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