Qantas plane bogged at Rockhampton Airport after landing

A passenger plane travelling from Brisbane landed at Rockhampton Airport on Monday night but while manoeuvring to park, got stuck in the soft ground. Read what they are doing to retrieve it out of the mud.

A Qantas plane remains stuck in the mud, literally.

The Boeing 717 passenger aircraft had come into land at the Rockhampton Airport on Monday night and after landing safely, it was moving around the tarmac to park and became bogged in soft ground.

In the middle of the Rockhampton Airport tarmac is a strip of grass, and given the airport is on a flood plain and has flooded in multiple occasions, this grass had become soft with all of the recent rainfall.

The grass is believed to be there for drainage purposes, as there is a drain channel at the end of it.

The back wheels of the aircraft remained stuck in the soft, grassed ground on Wednesday morning as can be seen by the photos and videos.

It is understood a bulldozer was used on Wednesday to shovel rock in the front of the bog.

The retrieval is expected to a take a few days and engineers have been called in.

According to a Qantas spokesperson, the aircraft was taxiing (meaning manoeuvring on the ground) at low speed to the parking bay when the pilot “inadvertently guided the aircraft across soft ground and became stuck just before the terminal”.

The customers were able to disembark normally via the stairs on the tarmac.

One passenger, Gill Koch, had been in Brisbane for a medical check up after breaking her back in February.

She said the landing felt sluggish but she didn’t think much of it.

“I have bolts and rods in my back, two bolts have now broken leaving a rather tender and painful situation to be in,” she said.

“Any hard or sharp abrupt bumps can certainly hurt.

“I could not have asked for better services considering the medical circumstances I am under.”

The aircraft was due to leave Rockhampton again on another flight to Brisbane.

There was a short delay for those departing passengers and they were moved to another aircraft.

Rockhampton Regional Council, which is one of the only councils in Australia that manages its local airport, said the incident was treated in accordance with the Airport Emergency Plan.

There has been no impact to airport operations and planes continue to fly in and out of the airport, flying around the stranded plane.

A steady stream of curious watchers have been coming by the viewing platforms to check it out.

The incident was referred to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau who say they are gathering further information to determine a potential investigation.