Qantas passengers stranded at Newcastle airport overnight due to severe thunderstorms

Qantas has responded to yet another incident this year after passengers were left in limbo in another city overnight while travelling to Sydney.

Passengers who were travelling from Santiago, Chile to Sydney on a Qantas flight have spent the night in limbo after being diverted to Newcastle.

Bad weather forced the aircraft to spend hours on the tarmac following a nightmarish period of turbulence.

The Dreamliner, which was full to capacity, had attempted to land in Sydney on Saturday evening, but was among several flights that had to be diverted due to the stormy weather conditions. However, the Qantas flight was the only international flight that was impacted.

Passenger John Myers shared that the flight was incredibly bumpy, and a crew member had even described the turbulence as “extreme”.

“A lot of us have been on flights that were bumpy, but that was on another level,” Myers said via the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Some people were holding hands and a few people were gripping on tight, there were a few gasps, but no screams.”

Once the plane arrived at Newcastle Airport, the crew found that it was not configured to accommodate Boeing Dreamliner 787 operations. As a result, the plane could not refuel and return to Sydney immediately.

Passengers who were travelling from Santiago, Chile to Sydney on a Qantas flight have spent the night in limbo after being diverted to Newcastle.

Newcastle had no accommodation or immigration facilities available, leaving passengers stranded after spending 14 hours in the air.

Passengers were forced to sit on the tarmac for close to seven hours before being allowed to disembark and spend the night at the airport.

In the early hours of the morning, the flight crew came around with McDonald‘s hamburgers and drinks for the passengers.

“It was lukewarm and I’m not usually a Maccas fan, but I was hungry and desperate times call for desperate measures,” Myers continued.

“By and large people kept their cool, and it was good to see that the people at the pointy end weren’t treated any differently to people in cattle class.”

Santiago to Sydney on QF28 diverts to Newcastle for a sleepover! We were stuck on the Newcastle tarmac for 7 hours after the 14 hour flight from Chile. pic.twitter.com/4GhuIO3rsr

— mediawisemelbourne (@mediawisemelb) February 18, 2023

Qantas released a statement following the conundrum, thanking passengers for their patience throughout the long and uncomfortable night.

“This included our flight from Santiago to Sydney which diverted to Newcastle. Qantas customer support team members travelled from Sydney to Newcastle to assist customers in the terminal through the night,” the statement said.

“We understand that this would have been a frustrating experience for our customers and an uncomfortable night and we thank them for their patience and understanding of the impact the storms had on flights into Sydney.”

The furore follows a turbulent start to the year for the major airline. A number of incidents, including a number of mid-flight turnarounds and two hospitalisations from turbulence have plagued the business over the first two months of the year.Qantas has been forced to turn another flight around just 10 minutes after takeoff to add to the struggling airline’s woes.

A QantasLink flight from Sydney bound for Coffs Harbour had to be turned back after experiencing a problem with its landing gear in late January.

It was the airline’s the sixth mishap in just two weeks.

Radar images show the passenger jet circling around Sydney trying to burn fuel after a fault indication light alerted pilots to another worrying issue.

The flight eventually landed safely at Sydney Airport a short time later.

It comes as the under-fire airline continues to face scrutiny for their performance, following a series of mid-flight problems.

The airline was also forced to issue a ‘mayday’ emergency call after a Sydney-bound flight experienced a reported engine failure on January 18.

Days later, flight QF1609 from Perth to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia was also forced to circle the WA capital after a ‘mechanical fault’.