Passengers on the Australian airline Jetstar involuntarily flew eight hours over Australia shortly before New Year’s Eve. A communication error was to blame.
The Australians love Bali as much as the Germans love Mallorca. Indonesia is the second most popular overseas destination for Australians. Sandy beaches, coral reefs, rainforest and especially parties attract them to the country – even on New Year’s Eve.
On December 27th, vacationers wanted to fly to Bali with the Australian airline Jetstar for the turn of the year. However, the departure of flight JQ35 from Melbourne to Denpasar became a challenge, as reported by Yahoo News Australia. The Boeing 787-8 with the registration VH-VKE did not take off until 11:14 p.m. with a five-hour delay.
U-turn around 35 minutes before Bali
It got really annoying for the travelers after around four hours of flight time. The machine turned around, flew a U-turn over the north-west coast of the continent and went on its way back. After around eight hours of flight time, the machine landed back at its departure airport in Melbourne.
The reason for the reversal was not a technical defect, but according to the airline a “miscommunication”. A spokeswoman told Yahoo News Australia: “We switched yesterday’s flight from Melbourne to Bali to a larger Boeing 787 to carry more customers during the holidays.” The airline regularly uses an Airbus A321 on the flights.
The problem: The airline had not informed the Indonesian supervisory authority about the change of aircraft in advance and had not obtained landing rights for the wide-bodied aircraft. Authorities refused to land shortly before leaving Australian airspace and Flight JQ35 was forced to return.
travelers upset
The customers then vented their displeasure on social media. They described the airline as “stupid” or “the worst airline in the world”. A couple is said to have spoiled their honeymoon and others asked whether Jetstar, like its parent company, had gotten Qantas to launch mystery flights – i.e. flights where passengers are only informed of the destination shortly before departure.
There was a small consolation in the end. In addition to paying for hotel and other transport costs, all those affected received a travel voucher worth 200 Australian dollars.
This article was written by Benjamin Recklies