Qantas flight to South Africa returns to Sydney due to technical fault

Sydney, Oct 1

Qantas flight QF63 to Johannesburg departed Sydney Airport at 10:14 a.m. local time on Tuesday with around 400 passengers on board, and had been in the air for about four hours when it turned back to Sydney due to a fault with satellite communications, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Airbus A380 landed back at Sydney Airport shortly after 7:30 p.m..

A spokesperson for Qantas said on Wednesday that no mayday or other emergency calls were made.

They said that the aircraft would be examined by an engineering team to determine the cause of the fault.

All passengers were offered accommodation and booked on another flight scheduled to depart at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

This comes just days after pilots of a Qantas flight issued a mayday call on September 26, triggered by warnings of a possible fire in the aircraft's cargo hold. However, it landed safely at New Zealand's Auckland Airport.

Flight 141 landed safely shortly before midday, and passengers disembarked without incident, authorities said.

Sixteen fire trucks and ambulances were on standby as the plane approached Auckland Airport for landing.

Qantas later confirmed in a statement that its pilots had received "intermittent indication about potential fire in the cargo hold" and had followed standard safety procedures, including issuing the mayday alert.

"Preliminary investigations report that there was no fire in the front cargo hold," the airline said, adding that its engineers would inspect the plane to determine the cause.

The incident briefly disrupted operations at Auckland Airport, which advised travellers to expect minor delays to some arriving and departing flights into the afternoon.

— IANS