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- Dubai 04:24 05:43 12:19 15:46 18:51 20:09
Scene inside the plane which made emergency landing (Twitter pic as tweeted by Nigel Richardson)
A Qantas flight from Dubai to Sydney on Sunday December 7 was diverted to Perth when the pilot was forced to land the plane after a fault developed in the air conditioning system.
The airline has confirmed all passengers travelling on flight QF2 are safe and were provided temporary accommodation in the Australian city, before being booked on another flight on Monday to continue the journey to Sydney.
According to Flightradar, an online flight tracking system, the plane dropped nearly 30,000 feet as it made its emergency descent.
In a statement, the airline said: “Qantas Flight QF2 travelling from Dubai to Sydney diverted to Perth due to a fault with the air conditioning. The fault occurred about one hour from Perth.
“As a precaution the captain descended the aircraft to 10,000 feet and requested a priority landing.”
The aircraft landed safely and was inspected by engineers.
The statement continued: “As the crew reached their maximum duty limits before the issue could be fixed on the ground, customers have been provided with overnight accommodation and will be booked on the next available services today to their destination.”
Live tweets
The news of QF2’s emergency situation spread on social media when a passenger live-tweeted the events as it unfolded on the flight.
Passenger Nigel Richardson, who boarded the flight in Dubai, took to Twitter as the drama unfolded on board on Sunday, with his positive tweets on how Qantas handled the emergency situation even resulting in a bump in the airline’s share prices on Monday.
Richardson first alerted of the emergency, tweeting: “Words you don’t expect to hear while on a plane ‘Cabin crew this is an emergency descent’ #qantas #qf2.”
He continued: “Cabin crew this is an emergency descent. The aircraft is in full control". Sort of a good news / bad news thing. #qantas #qf2
“Fastest descent I’ve ever experienced in a plane. Always interesting when you see cabin crew running too...#qantas #qf2”
Richardson continued to tweet in good humour, adding: “Air conditioning problem. Aircraft not in danger. Crew very calm and professional. Look on the bright side. I’ve never been to Perth before.”
Richardson, who was connecting to Melbourne from Sydney, added: “No, I’m not an employee of/affiliated with #qantas I just think good customer service needs to be called out... ”
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