Originally Posted by fls114

I was on QF 26 the other day. It was my very first time on Qantas (I live in the States) as well as my first time on a 747. We were cruising right along, with everyone asleep, when there was suddenly a loud noise and the plane starting shaking significantly. It felt like we descended (under control) near immediately. 10 minutes later the pilot came on and announced that there was trouble with the engine and that they had to shut it down. The plane continued to shake and vibrate until we finally landed in Cairns 2 hours later.

That was my first major issue in the sky, and I have to say it was pretty scary. They announced at first that we were safe to continue on to Sydney, but then we could see the course change on the flight map and a bit later they announced that we were going to divert to Cairns "because of the shaking".