Audio from the cockpit of a China Eastern flight that had to return to Sydney Airport implies the pilot misspoke when alerting the tower.
The Shanghai-bound MU736 flight, which departed Sydney about 8.30pm on Sunday, experienced an engine fault mid-air and returned about an hour after take-off.
In the audio, which has been confirmed by a spokeswoman from China Eastern Airlines, the pilot appears to misspeak when trying to alert authorities to the engine fault.
"Engine number one fooked" can be heard twice in the audio.
"Continue climb to 5000," the speaker later says.
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The airline spokeswoman said the audio was a "communication between our flight crew and air traffic control".
The audio sent social media into a spin, with some suggesting the pilot was trying to say "fault" and others pointing to a slip of the tongue.
"I'll go with 'fault' but amusing all the same," Dave Monds said of the audio posted to the Facebook page for aviation enthusiasts, Flight.
"Dropping the f-bomb on a new level," another person posted.
"Well, it got the message across ..." John Bartels wrote.
Photos circulating the web show a huge hole in the engine casing of the Airbus A330, which was forced to circle before touching down safely.
The plane landed in Sydney and passengers, who were put up in hotels, were expected to depart on another flight on Monday.
The returned aircraft is being examined at Sydney Airport.
