Passengers on Thailand-Australia flight forced to stay on plane for 7 hours after diversion to outback airport
- The Jetstar flight from Bangkok to Melbourne was diverted to a domestic airport in Alice Springs after a passenger medical emergency
- The 320 passengers on board were reportedly left without food, the entertainment system was turned off and there were issues with the air conditioning
Hundreds of passengers were forced to remain on a plane for almost seven hours after it diverted to a remote airport due to a passenger medical emergency.
The Jetstar flight from Bangkok to Melbourne landed in Alice Springs, in Australia’s Northern Territory, at about 7.20am on Sunday. An electrical problem on the Boeing Dreamliner was then discovered which meant it could not take off, the airline said.
The 320 passengers on flight JQ30 had to wait on the plane for almost seven hours because the airport didn’t have “customs processing facilities”, Jetstar said in a statement.
One passenger, Paul Tarrant, told ABC that the plane had issues with its air conditioning and the entertainment system was turned off.
“As a domestic airport, Alice Springs does not have customs processing facilities and we worked with border agencies, the NT Police and the local airport authority to provide passengers with the option to disembark into a specially partitioned section of the airport,” Jetstar said in a statement.
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One passenger told 7 News they were left without food for about eight hours.
Passengers were finally allowed to disembark to a partitioned section of the airport at about 2.15pm. By that time a replacement aircraft had arrived and passengers were then transferred to it and given food and drinks before continuing their journey.
“We appreciate this has been a lengthy delay and frustrating experience,” the airline added. “Safety is always our first priority, and we thank passengers for their patience and understanding as we supported the passenger requiring urgent medical assistance and worked to get everyone else on their way as quickly as possible.”
Jetstar is a budget airline and part of the Qantas group.
