Image: Broome airport. Credit: www.broomeair.com.au
A Qantas flight heading from Bali to Sydney last night was diverted to Broome, Western Australia for an emergency landing.
The flight, with 264 passengers, was diverted to Broome due to an electric failure on the aircraft.
Flight QF44 left Bali on Monday night at 10.40pm for Sydney but at around 12.45am, over northern WA, the aircraft suffered an electric fault.
The aircraft’s autopilot failed while passengers reported flickering and reduced lighting in the cabin.
The pilots requested a priority landing at Broome, first circling out to sea, before landing safely at 1.45am.
However, due to the fact that Airbus A330 aircraft do not fly to Broome, there was a delay of almost two hours finding suitable stairs as well as immigration and customs staff to handle the passengers.
Broome International Airport chief executive Paul McSweeney told The West Australian newspaper the Airbus A330 was the biggest passenger airliner to ever land at the airport.
Mr McSweeney said he was very happy with the response from all the crew involved. “We all worked together and it was a great team effort,” he said.
Qantas says it hopes to get all passengers on direct flights to Sydney or via Perth today and will send engineers to Broome to fix the aircraft.
