Qantas plane bound for Sydney forced to land in Perth
A Qantas flight bound for Sydney has been forced to land in Perth today, after the plane suddenly went into a holding pattern mid-air.
National
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A Qantas flight bound for Sydney was forced to land in Perth, after the plane had a problem with its landing gear.
QF642 took off from Perth at 9.33am WST on Thursday, with 224 passengers onboard before it went into a holding pattern mid-air.
The Airbus 330 then landed back in Perth at 10.20am local time.
“Qantas flight QF 642 has returned to Perth due to an engineering issue,” a spokesman said.
Qantas said engineers were inspecting the aircraft after it had an issue with one of its three hydraulic systems, which prevented the landing gear from retracting.
The airline said it was working to get customers back to Sydney as quickly as possible and apologised for the disruption.
“The aircraft landed safely and was towed from the runway, where passengers exited
as normal (via aerobridge) into the terminal,” the airline said in a statement.
Perth Glory Football Club chief executive Tony Pignata, who was a passenger on the flight, also confirmed there was an issue with the plane’s landing gear.
“Well that wasn’t pleasant having to circle for a bit and land back in Perth after the landing gear failed to retract,” he tweeted.
“Well done to the @Qantas Captain and crew in getting us safely back on the ground and keeping us informed. Ah the joys of flying.”
Well that wasn’t pleasant having to circle for a bit and land back in Perth after the landing gear failed to retract. Well done to the @Qantas Captain and crew in getting us safely back on the ground and keeping us informed. Ah the joys of flying. 😄✈ï¸
— Tony Pignata (@tpignata9) January 16, 2020
It comes after a Qantas plane slid off the runway last week at Newman Airport in West Australia’s Pilbara region amid heavy rain from an ex-tropical cyclone in the state’s northwest.
All 80 passengers and crew exited via the stairs after the Fokker 100 aircraft slid onto gravel on Thursday morning and became stuck in the mud, about 50 metres past the end of the runway.
There were no injuries.
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The airport was closed and flights in and out of Newman cancelled for the rest of the day while workers attempt to move the aircraft.
A QantasLink spokesman said the airline had commenced an internal investigation and reported the incident to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
“The aircraft has come to a complete stop in what’s called the runway end safety area,” she said.
“We apologise to impacted customers and are working to re-accommodate them as quickly as possible.”