A China Eastern Airbus A330-200, registration B-6099 performing flight MU-736 from Sydney,NS (Australia) to Shanghai Pudong (China), was in the initial climb out of Sydney’s runway 34L when the crew reported a left hand engine (Trent 772) fault and requested to maintain runway heading.

The aircraft levelled off at 5000 feet, the crew shut the engine down. The crew subsequently reported it appeared the left hand engine’s cowling was damaged and requested a runway inspection, the engine suffered the damage about one second after takeoff rotation.

ATC informed the crew that a runway inspection did not find any debris on the runway. The aircraft returned to Sydney for a safe landing on runway 34L about 40 minutes after departure. A large hole was visible at the inboard side of the left hand engine’s intake.

A seemingly similar incident also involving a Trent 772 engine happened about 4 weeks ago, when Egypt A332 rejected takeoff due to engine failure at Cairo.