QF12 - Bad weather forces A380 to land in Noumea

[Andrew M]

Must have been pretty bad weather....Running low on fuel sounds more likely as indicated in the article. Then the crew timed out... Should have stopped in Hawaii or Fiji me thinks.....

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/nat...-1225903933659

A QANTAS jet carrying 375 passengers has been forced to make an emergency landing at Noumea.

The Sydney-bound QF12 A380 aircraft was forced to divert its flight from LA due to severe weather earlier today.

Passengers, as well as 26 crew members, were stranded on the plane for more than five hours after landing.

It is believed ground crew at the tiny south pacific airport, that has never had an A380 land there, were unable to tow the massive aircraft.

"Safety is first priority, hence the Captain made the decision to divert to Noumea for additional fuel," she said.

[James K]

Hardly an "emergency" landing.

[Andrew M]

I didn't want to go down that path again.....

[Stephen B]

If you're a fan of entertaining heeadlines check this one out!

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-...811-11z9k.html

[Stuart Trevena]

Hi All,

Just out of interest, why wasn't BNE or CNS used, as a diversion airport?

Stuart

[Sarah C]

That would have been the first preference - maybe they didn't have enough fuel to get to those destinations if they were affected by weather too.

BNE did have some big storms yesterday.

[Brandon Giacomin]

DL17 diverted to BNE this morning.

[Brett o]

Hi All

The Article said that Qantas dispatched a 747 to fly the passengers’ home. I was wondering why they did not use the A380 to fly the passenger’s home. I assume all that is needed is a new flight and cabin crew and they could be flown to Noumea on any aircraft available.

Also do you happen to know the rego’s of the planes involved?

[Adam P.]

Blatant speculation of a possible scenario:

Only crew and spare aircraft available at short notice could have been a 400. Send it to rescue the passengers, then wait for the original Airbus crew to finish their min rest period before they ferry their own aircraft back. Not being a 'normal' port for the A380, there's no scheduled services to rely on to get a new crew out there, and certainly no crew on standby anywhere near the place. So a 'rescue' flight becomes the quickest option.

Having no idea of what longhaul min-rest requirements are for crew, perhaps it would have been faster to do this than wait for the first crew to become available again.

End of blatant speculation.

[Laurent Sanhard]

i presume the 747 was sent as the A380 with a full load my not have the required length of runway (or width ) @ Noumea for take off back to Sydney