A Qantas flight heading to Johannesburg from Sydney had to turn around mid-air because of a satellite communications glitch, the airline confirmed this week.
The flight, QF63 on an Airbus A380, took off from Sydney Airport at 10:14 a.m. Tuesday with about 400 passengers on board. It flew for roughly four hours before the crew decided to head back for safety. The plane touched down safely in Sydney just after 7:30 p.m. that evening.
Qantas spokesperson explained that pilots didn’t issue any mayday or emergency signals during the incident. Engineers are now checking the aircraft to figure out exactly what went wrong with the satellite system.
To help everyone out, the airline set up hotel stays for passengers and rescheduled them on a new flight leaving at 1 p.m. Wednesday. No one got hurt, and the focus stayed on getting folks back on track.
This hiccup comes right after another close call for Qantas. Just days earlier, on September 26, pilots on Flight 141 to Auckland put out a mayday alert over warnings of a possible fire in the cargo hold. The plane landed without issues at Auckland Airport around midday, and all passengers walked off fine.
Emergency crews rolled out big time—16 fire trucks and ambulances waited on the tarmac as the flight came in. Qantas later said the alerts were just intermittent false alarms, with no actual fire in the front cargo hold. Their team is inspecting that plane too, to pinpoint the cause.
The Auckland drama caused short delays for other flights arriving and leaving that afternoon, but things cleared up quickly.
Qantas continues to prioritize safety on all routes, especially long-haul trips like Sydney to Johannesburg and beyond. Travelers flying with the airline can rest easy knowing standard procedures kicked in both times.
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