Qantas Flight from Dubai Lands in Perth, Instead in Sydney

31st Aug 2015

A Qantas Airways Airbus A380 plane scheduled to fly from Dubai to Sydney was forced to make an emergency landing in Perth as one of the pilots discovered a problem with the jet's fuel pumps.

To make matters worse, flight QF2, which took off from Dubai International Airport early Monday morning was already delayed for about three hours before the problem with the fuel pumps was discovered.

Understandably, some of the passengers were angry with the whole development, so they took to social media for a bit of ranting. One of them tweeted:

"Not the best attempts to get back home with @Qantas, 4 hours sat in the plane in Dubai with problems, now we're in Perth & not Sydney?"

Another passenger asked the carrier (also via Tweeter):

"How is it possible that there are only 2 counters open for rebooking a diverted A380 plane (in Perth) for the Dubai-Sydney route? The airport had hours notice of the change. Not happy Qantas."

A spokesperson for Qantas said the following about the incident:

"The aircraft landed safely and normally at 2:50 a.m. and is currently being inspected by engineers. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. We have provided customers with hotel accommodation and will re-book as many customers as possible on the next available serves from Perth."

At least one passenger took the matter a little more light-heartedly as he tweeted to his friend that he 'missed all the fun':

"You missed all the 'fun'. QF2 taxied out in Dubai, taxied back, left 3 hours late, just landed in Perth at 2:40 a.m."

Earlier this month, Qantas also had to delay a flight from Melbourne to Changi Airport, Singapore overnight. That time, flight QF36 could not land due: 'congestion at Changi Airport as a result of the airport's closure for SG50 flyover celebrations'.