Saw and heard the whole thing....
I was at the lookout point watching the whole thing including the emergency services racing around...
The old man happen to be on the other side at the airport and drove home one of the passengers who told him the whole story.
Tail struck the tarmac on take off, luggage underneath 'moved' causing concern to the pilots, dumped fuel over port phillip bay/ocean, smoke started filling the cabin, returned to YMML.
Landing was certainly very long. Touchdown was well down 34 and far from the threshold, though it did appear to be a soft landing (not hard as previously commented). Reverse thrust was engaged quickly, which was needed to stop the aircraft on the tarmac instead of the Bulla carpark.
There were about 8 emergency vehicles on the tarmac and once the flight came to a complete stop at the end of 34, flood lights lit up the aircraft checking for any catastrophic failures preventing it from taxing back to the gate.
Aircraft was escorted to the terminal and passengers disembarked normally. A couple of domestic Qantas flights inbound were slightly delayed on 27 for a couple of minutes.
Last edited by fogap; 21st Mar 2009 at 02:15.