Qantas flight bound for London forced to turn back to Dubai

A QANTAS flight that left Melbourne bound for London via Dubai was forced to return to Dubai today with engine problems, delaying travel plans for 347 passengers.

A QANTAS flight that left Melbourne bound for London via Dubai was forced to return to the UAE with engine problems, delaying travel plans for 347 passengers.

QF9 from Dubai to London turned around yesterday morning because of a problem with one of the A380 aircraft’s four engines.

It landed in Dubai about 9am Melbourne time, 2am Dubai time.

A Qantas spokesman said engineers were last night inspecting the engine to determine the cause of the problem.

A replacement aircraft was organised so passengers were able to resume their flight departing for London again overnight, after about 13 hours of unscheduled stopover.

It landed safely in London at 7pm Friday UK time, or 6am Saturday Australian time.

Qantas Communications Manager Thomas Woodward said the airline could confirm the cause of the engine failure.

“The initial flight returned to Dubai shorty after take off (at 1.20am) and landed back in Dubai just before 2am,” he said.

“The pilots were alerted to a fault with the number three engine via the indication system on the flight deck.

“There was no impact to the other three engines or to the safety of the aircraft and passengers, but clearly the appropriate response was to return to Dubai to assess the engine.”

Inspections of the aircraft are continuing.