San Francisco, Sep 1 (IANS) A Qantas flight bound for Sydney, Australia was forced to make an emergency landing at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) early Tuesday after a malfunction in one of its engines.

Qantas Airways Flight No. 74, a Boeing 747, departed SFO at around 11:10 p.m. Monday with 212 passengers and 19 crew members on board. It had been in the air for about 45 minutes when the engine failure occurred, Xinhua said, citing local media reports.

The plane then landed safely and without any injuries at about 12:45 a.m., it was reported.

Passengers said they heard a thud which was followed by a shower of sparks and some fire inside the engine.

'All I could see was just a shower of sparks. But it was remarkably calm, I was really surprised that during the whole sort of fireworks show that there was no screaming and no very obvious signs of panic,' Paul Irangio, a passenger, was quoted as saying by local ABC 7 television channel.

The cause of the engine failure is under investigation and the event has not affected any other travel into or out of SFO, authorities said.