Emergency slide delays LA to Sydney Qantas flight

Passengers on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Sydney were delayed by about three hours after a mishap just prior to takeoff.

A Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Sydney has been delayed after a piece of emergency equipment deployed as the plane waited to take off.

QF12 was delayed for several hours on Sunday – local time – when, according to Qantas, one of the Airbus A380’s 14 inflatable slides deployed as the aircraft waited on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport.

All passengers were taken off the plane and treated to LAX’s Qantas business lounge while ground crews worked to fix the issue.

The deployment of an emergency slide forced the LA to Sydney flight to be delayed by about three hours. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Engineers removed the slide and the flight eventually took off after about a three-hour delay, landing in Sydney late on Wednesday morning.

The incident comes as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) releases a report into the national carrier, finding it was the most complained-about airline in the 2021-22 financial year.

ACCC data shows complaints over Qantas made to the regulator were up 68 per cent, with consumers making contact more than 1700 times in that year.