FRIGHTENED and confused Qantas passengers were injured yesterday after hundreds were ordered on to inflatable escape chutes to evacuate a jumbo jet thepilot feared had caught fire as it landed at Sydney airport yesterday.

“Some people were quite frightened, some were not quite sure what to do,” he said. “Some of the kids, toddlers, were crying. They didn’t know what happened. There was one woman with six kids, and at first she couldn’t find her baby, and she was just yelling `my baby, my baby’.” A NSW Ambulance spokesman said thesix injured were taken to three Sydney hospitals mostly with minor back complaints suffered while leaving the plane. The aircraft’s first officer is believed to be among those injured.

Qantas executive general manager aircraft operations David Forsyth said the captain received a “brake overheat” warning about the same time ground workers saw smoke coming from the brakes.

FRIGHTENED and confused Qantas passengers were injured yesterday after hundreds were ordered on to inflatable escape chutes to evacuate a jumbo jet thepilot feared had caught fire as it landed at Sydney airport yesterday.

The airline was later forced to defend the decision to use the emergency slides amid claims the move was an overreaction.

Passengers were thrown into confusion and six were hospitalised with minor injuries when the aircraft’s captain ordered the evacuation.

Crew on the 5.15am Boeing 747-400 from Frankfurt and Singapore had opened the front door when the captain ordered the evacuation after a report that an overheated wheel brake was on fire.

More than 50 mostly premium class passengers walked off the plane into Sydney’s international terminal but the remainder of the 365 aboard were ordered to dive for safety down emergency chutes.

“We heard (over) the radio something like evict, evict,” said tourist John Lighthart, 53, of The Netherlands. “We rushed the doors. It was a fantastic experience. I dived headfirst and was ejected on to the ground.” Stephen Carter, 14, said the slide was much faster than expected and he came close to injuring another passenger.

“Some people were quite frightened, some were not quite sure what to do,” he said. “Some of the kids, toddlers, were crying. They didn’t know what happened. There was one woman with six kids, and at first she couldn’t find her baby, and she was just yelling `my baby, my baby’.” A NSW Ambulance spokesman said thesix injured were taken to three Sydney hospitals mostly with minor back complaints suffered while leaving the plane. The aircraft’s first officer is believed to be among those injured.

Qantas executive general manager aircraft operations David Forsyth said the captain received a “brake overheat” warning about the same time ground workers saw smoke coming from the brakes.

An engineer called to inspect the brakes reported seeing a flame and the captain decided to evacuate while the engineer was fetching a fire extinguisher.

But sources indicated last night that engineers had not considered the problem a serious threat and that the fire was only momentary.

Mr Forsyth said it was unfair to assert the captain had overreacted. “He took all of that into account and wanted to take the least risky outcome so he decided to get everybody out of the aeroplane as quickly as he could,” he said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the incident and the airline has pulled the two-year-old aircraft’s flight data recorder.

Mr Forsyth said it was not yet clear what caused the brakes to overheat.

He said the aircraft landed normally, there was no indication it had braked heavily and reports showed no abnormalities in the landing gear.