Safety not behind mid-air return of Qantas passenger flight destined for Perth

A Qantas flight headed to Perth on Wednesday made an abrupt retreat back to Adelaide – now the airline has explained why.

An on-board water supply issue has been blamed for the mid-air return of a Qantas flight destined for Perth, one of the latest in a series of disruptions for the airline.

Passenger flight QF887 was scheduled to take off from Adelaide airport at 3.30pm on Wednesday afternoon.

However, the flight turned around 44 minutes after its departure, making a U-turn shortly after flying over Port Lincoln.

Qantas flight QF887 travelling from Adelaide to Perth was turned around mid flight due to on-board water issues. Picture: Flight Radar

A Qantas spokesperson confirmed the detour was due to an issue with an on-board water supply.

“Engineers inspected the aircraft on arrival in Adelaide, fixed the issue and cleared the aircraft for travel,” the spokesperson said.

“There is no safety issue with the aircraft and no emergency landing was called.”

The aircraft returned to the air around 5.30pm and arrived in Perth approximately 90 minutes behind schedule.

It’s the second incident involving the route in approximately a week.