Sydney (AP): A Qantas flight travelling from New Zealand to Sydney issued a mayday call over the ocean Wednesday, and emergency services were responding.

Qantas Flight 144 was due to land at 3:30 p.m. (430 GMT) at Sydney Airport. Multiple outlets reported it had an engine failure. Boeing 737 jets have two engines.


New South Wales Ambulance confirmed its paramedics were responding to the mayday alert. FlightRadar indicated the flight is currently over the Pacific Ocean.

A mayday call is issued when a flight is in grave and imminent danger and needs immediate assistance, according to Airservices Australia. 

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New Delhi (PTI): In a friendly banter, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he didn’t have "the wife issue", as the Congress MP emphasised that everyone has learnt from women in their lives.

Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on the three bills introduced for amendments to the women's quota law and setting up a delimitation commission, Gandhi said women are a driving force in the national imagination and national perspective.

"All of us in this room have been influenced, taught, and have learnt a lot from women in our lives – from mothers, sisters, wives," Gandhi said.

"Of course, the prime minister and myself don't have the wife issue, so we don't get that input, but we have our mothers and sisters," he said while referring to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju's light-hearted remark that he got a scolding at home as he did not pen a poem for his wife like Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal did.

Gandhi also lauded his sister and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi's speech in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

"Yesterday, I was watching my sister achieve in five minutes what I have not been able to do in 20 years of my political career – make Amit Shah Ji smile," Gandhi said to peals of laughter.