Eddie McGuire says Qantas A380 ‘nosedive’ felt like roller coaster
COLLINGWOOD president Eddie McGuire said a Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne felt like a rollercoaster when it plunged.
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EDDIE McGuire said a Qantas flight bound for Melbourne from Los Angeles felt like a rollercoaster when it plunged.
“For about 10 seconds there was a drop, it did have that a feel of you know when you just go over the top of the roller coaster you just get a little bit of that feeling,” he told the Today Show.
“It just had that uneasy feeling as it pitched forward and to the side.”
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He said the incident happened about an hour into the flight from LA but praised the crew of the aircraft.
“The most reassuring part about the whole thing was the Qantas pilot came on immediately and said we’ve gone up the back of the turbulence of the Sydney plane that had been ahead of us.”
The incident happened on Sunday night about two hours into flight QF94.
It was believed to have been caused by the vortex or “wake turbulence” created by another jet - QF12 - flying from LA to Sydney.
QF94 passenger Janelle Wilson told The Australian the plane, with 484 seats, was “three-quarters full” when it suffered a “free fall nosedive … a direct decline towards the ocean” for about 10 seconds.
“It was between 1½ and two hours after we left LA and all of a sudden the plane went through a violent turbulence and then completely up-ended and we were nosediving,” Ms Wilson said.
Flight tracking details revealed QF12 took off from LAX two minutes before QF94 at 11.27pm, (4.27pm AEST Monday), 57 minutes late.
QF94 departed at 11.29pm, 49 minutes late and landed safely in Melbourne at 8am on Tuesday.
According to Ms Wilson, the pilot of QF94 told passengers after the plane had stabilised they had been caught “in a vortex” due to the Qantas A380 flight ahead of them.
The pilot then contacted traffic control to request an alternate route.
According to Qantas there had been no breach of safety separation standards as the two A380s were apart by 20 nautical miles and 1000 feet in altitude.
However the incident has led to calls for that safety standard to be reviewed.
The plane did not suffer any damage and no passengers were injured.
Qantas did not report the incident to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
The safety watchdog sought a response from the airline following inquiries from The Australian.
An ATSB spokesman said: “Following our correspondence, the ATSB has made inquiries with the operator and they are voluntarily submitting a notification. Once received, we will review the information to determine whether any further action is required.”
In a statement, Qantas said: “There are safeguards in place to reduce the likelihood of wake turbulence encounters, but it is hard to eliminate.
“Unexpected turbulence is why we always recommend passengers keep their seatbelts fastened at all times.”
It is not the first time wake turbulence has been blamed for an incident involving an A380.
Last year, a private Challenger jet was affected by a Sydney-bound Emirates A380 over the Arabian Sea.
Wake turbulence was also blamed for the near-stall of a Qantas 747, flying from Melbourne to Hong Kong in April last year.
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