LONDON – For the second time in two weeks, a Qantas flight designated as Flight QF1 has been forced to make an unscheduled diversion.
The latest incident involves a Qantas flight designated QF1, operated by Airbus A380 registered VH-OQJ on a scheduled service from Sydney to London Heathrow Airport via Singapore.
The aircraft had departed Singapore Changi Airport at 00.43 local time on Tuesday 3 December and was approximately 11 hours into the flight when it declared an emergency.
When a passenger onboard became critically sick, the flight crew was forced to declare a medical emergency whilst transiting Romanian airspace near Bucharest.
The flight subsequently negotiated a diversion to Athens, Greece where it subsequently landed at approximately 06.15am local time.
A Qantas spokesperson has confirmed the nature of the emergency warranting the diversion, but there is no official report on the current status of the affected passenger at the time of writing.
According to the airline spokesperson: “Crew and passengers provided life-saving first aid onboard and, on the advice of medical experts, the flight diverted so the passenger could receive emergency medical treatment.”
According to Flightradar24 data, an onwards flight to London Heathrow has been scheduled to depart Athens earlier this morning, but the departure had been subsequently cancelled.
Previous QF1 diversion
The latest diversion is the second time a Qantas flight designated QF1 has been forced to divert in the last fortnight.
In the prior incident, Qantas Airbus A380, registered VH-OQH and designated Flight QF1, had departed Singapore Changi Airport on Friday December 23.
The aircraft was approximately 9 hours into its scheduled non-stop flight to London Heathrow Airport, when flight crew declared an emergency over Georgia.
The aircraft then made a precautionary diversion to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where it landed without incident.
In that instance, the cause of the diversion was a faulty fire sensor in a cargo hold, and the flight crew made the precautionary diversion according to standard operating procedures.
