Passengers onboard an international Jetstar flight from Bangkok to Melbourne were trapped onboard a stifling hot Boeing 787 Dreamliner after the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Alice Springs due to a serious medical emergency.
The airline insists the diversion to the remote airport in Australia’s Northern Territory was essential to get the sick passenger specialised medical care, but once on the ground, things quickly started going wrong.
The original plan was to get the ill passenger off the plane and immediately leave Alice Springs with the other 320 passengers for the remainder of the flight to Melbourne.
But an electrical fault effectively grounded the nine-year-old aircraft in Alice Springs and prevented the plane from taking off. Without an engineering base at the airport, Jetstar’s only option was to fly a replacement aircraft from Melbourne to pick up the stranded passengers.
At this point, passengers were keen to get off the aircraft to stretch their legs and get some fresh air and refreshments. Unfortunately, that simple request couldn’t be accommodated because Alice Springs is a domestic airport and doesn’t have customs facilities to handle international arrivals.
As a result, the passengers were initially told that they had to stay on the aircraft until Jetstar found a replacement plane and crew and then flew it two and half hours to Alice Springs.
During this lengthy delay, passengers say the air conditioning and inflight entertainment system stopped working, and refreshments were in short supply. Thankfully, airport officials eventually cordoned off a small part of the terminal to let the passengers off.
Jetstar flight JQ30 was scheduled to arrive in Melbourne at 10:25 am on Sunday but isn’t now expected to land until 11:20 pm.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the airline said they “appreciate this has been a lengthy delay and a frustrating experience”.
“Safety is always our first priority, and we thank passengers for their patience and understanding as we supported the passenger requiring urgent medical assistance and worked to get everyone else on their way as quickly as possible,” the statement continued.
Last December, Jetstar was left red-faced after it flew an eight-hour flight to nowhere when the airline failed to get the necessary landing permission for a Melbourne to Bali flight.
The blunder was only discovered after the plane had been in the air for four hours, forcing the pilots to perform an about-turn and return straight back to Melbourne.
The issue cropped up because Jetstar swapped the type of aircraft used for the flight at the last minute and forgot to get Indonesian officials that they would be using a larger plane
