Qantas flight diverts due to inflight emergency

QANTAS B737-838 VH-VXL (CN 33482)        File Photo

A Qantas flight travelling from Adelaide (ADL/YPAD) to Canberra (CBR/YSCB) diverted to Melbourne (MEL/YMML) after a cabin pressurisation issue early this morning. A statement from the airline says pilots on flight QF706 followed standard procedure when the incident occurred forcing them to descend to 10,000 feet. A passenger on board said the flight and the cabin staff did a great job at "keeping the passengers calm and informed of what was happening". "The aircraft shuddered a bit, there was a bit of a ‘bang’ sound (seemed to come from front right of cabin), then the masks dropped and the alert messages played," he said. The aircraft then descended to 10000 ft, diverted to Melbourne, and landed with no issues."

A spokesperson from Qantas said the aircraft was given a priority landing at Melbourne Airport and "landed without incident just after 8am local time. It was not an emergency landing". Oxygen masks were deployed but once the plane reached the lower altitude passengers were instructed to remove them and breathe normally.

One passenger told reporters that she heard a "loud bang" and said that passengers "had to don the oxygen masks and keep them on." Twitter user Greg Denehy wrote "QF706 to Canberra this morning lost cabin pressure so we put the oxygen masks to good use while diverting to Melbourne."

There was no sort of word as to what the problem was at the time, there was just a pre-recorded message on a loop that lasted for a couple of minutes after the masks dropped. "It was very organised and calm on board, no one seemed to be too afraid … it was very quiet and eerie for a while."

A Qantas statement said that all customers left the aircraft normally and will be transferred onto other flights. Qantas Chief Technical Pilot Captain Alex Passerini said "our pilots and cabin crew handled the incident in line with standard operating procedures."  "We would like to thank our customers who followed the crew instructions and remained calm during the diversion," Mr Passerini said.

"The aircraft is currently being examined by engineers in Melbourne to determine the fault."

The aircraft left Melbourne as QF6122 at 3.53pm local time bound for Brisbane, arriving here at 6.00pm and went straight to the QANTAS maintenance hanger.

Aircraft Details

Airline: QANTAS

Code: QF / QFA

Aircraft: B737-838

Registration: VH-VXL

Serial Number: 33482

Engines: 2 x CFMI CFM56-7B26

First Flew: 28/06/2002

Age: 16Yrs 7 Mths