>> A gash ripped in the engine casing of an airliner, a mid-air emergency on this China Eastern Airlines flight to Shanghai, that forced the plane back to Sidney. Passenger Ashley Beck described the moment people on board realized something was wrong.>> So it took off like normal, and then, all of a sudden some of our friends that were with us smelled burning.

And we didn't think anything of it really, but then all of a sudden it got really loud and it was like

Cabin crew tried to calm the passengers when the problems began shortly after take off.>> They told us to fasten our seatbelt and they tried to calm us down.

But we were actually very panicked cuz we had no idea what's happening.>> The Airbus A330 returned to Sydney without incident and no passengers were injured, a general manager for China Eastern said. No official word yet on what happened to the engine. Australia's Transport Safety Bureau is starting an investigation.