A Qantas A380 flight from Dubai to Sydney was forced to make an emergency landing in Perth this morning after it developed a technical fault with the cabin air system.
The flight QF2 was diverted to Perth after the air conditioning developed a fault about an hour north-east of Perth, while flying above the Indian Ocean.
In a statement, Qantas said the aircraft captain made a controlled descent from 39,000 to 10,000 feet and requested a priority landing in order to maintain the conditions of the cabin.
The descent took approximately five minutes according to Qantas, and was announced by the captain to passengers and cabin crew.
Captain Mike Galvin, Qantas Head of Flying Operations, said: “It’s standard procedure to descend quickly in these circumstances and at no stage was the safety of the aircraft or passengers at risk.”
The aircraft landed safely in Perth at 1:18am (WST) and is being inspected by engineers.
As the crew had reached their maximum duty limits before the issue could be fixed on the ground, Qantas said customers were provided with overnight accommodation. Some customers were booked on scheduled Qantas services to Sydney this morning, with the majority departing on an extra B747 flight that we operating at 2:30pm.
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