Another Qantas jet forced into emergency landing as landing gear doors fail to close

The Melbourne-bound Boeing 767 turned around 20 minutes after taking off in Adelaide last night, landing safely back in Adelaide at 6.15 pm.

The incident comes just three days after a Qantas Boeing 747 made an emergency landing in Manila after a gaping hole exploded in its fusilage. It has emerged that Qantas was warned three months ago about possible dangers with Boeing 747-400s.

Qantas Captain John Francis Bartels stares up at the damage on the wing of the Boeing 747 forced into an emergency landing on Friday

Disgruntled passengers on the Melbourne flight last night told the Adelaide Advertiser they would refuse to fly with Qantas again following the airline's second mid-air scare since Friday.

Qantas would not say how many passengers were on board QF692, however, a Boeing 767-338 can carry up to 254 passengers.

Most of the passengers were transferred to later Qantas flights but some refused, choosing to fly with Virgin Blue – or even take other means of transport, the Advertiser reported.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said the aircraft "was not in danger at any stage, it was more of an aerodynamics issue".

The aircraft's wheels came up after take-off but the undercarriage door would not retract, he said, adding that the malfunction was at the "lower end" of the danger scale.

"The pilot would have had to have made a judgment call, like he was trained to do, and he decided to bring the flight back to Adelaide, which was the safer option."

Passenger Ania Gabala said she was scared when the plane had to turn around. "Just as we started to ascend there was a grinding noise under the plane and I kept saying to my partner: 'Is it supposed to be like this'," she told the Advertiser.

Another passenger, Katherine Morgan, said there were "terrible vibrations" throughout the cabin.

"People looked worried after last week's activities on Qantas, but the crew were fantastic," she said.

A Qantas spokeswoman said last night: "The flight performed a routine air turn-back shortly after takeoff due to an indication of one of the landing gear doors failing to retract."

South African passenger Gunter Kubler said he would refuse to fly with Qantas now. "It was absolute chaos on the plane and then they had to turn it around," he said. "They had to bring in another plane to fly people back but I don't trust them so I will take a bus or a train to Melbourne. It's bloody ridiculous."

The airline was warned three months ago about the possible dangers of brackets supporting oxygen tanks.

Investigators believe these tanks could have caused the explosion which ripped a hole in the Qantas jet carrying 350 passengers and crew from London to Melbourne as it crossed the South China Sea.

They have identified a missing cylinder from a bank of two which supplied oxygen to the cabin crew.

The warning from the U.S-based Federal Aviation Authority in April was issued to all airlines operating Boeing 747-400s.

It followed a report that some oxygen cylinder support brackets might not have been properly heat-treated and could cause oxygen leakage. Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority then issued a similar directive.

At the weekend, aviation officials in the country ordered an inspection of oxygen bottles aboard the Qantas 747 fleet.