It brings me extreme displeasure to announce that a Qantas plane heading from Sydney to the Philippines on New Year’s Day had to turn around mid-flight ‘cos of a power cut at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
I genuinely cannot believe this is the second story about a plane leaving Australia and chucking a uey back home that I’ve written in the past week. I long for the days when planes simply landed where they were meant to.
Unlike the Jetstar flight — which unsuccessfully hoofed it from Melbourne to Bali ‘cos the airline decided to use a bigger plane without gaining approval from Indonesian authorities — this wee situation wasn’t Qantas’ fault.
Per the ABC, the QF19 flight started yeeting from Sydney to Manila at about 1pm on Sunday when a power outage struck the latter city’s international airport.
A Qantas spokesperson said in a statement that “all airlines were prevented from arriving into Manila on Sunday afternoon” ‘cos Filipino authorities closed the local airspace.
According to news.com.au, folks were three hours into their eight-hour journey when the pilot broke the news that they’d have to scoot back to Sydney.
I truly would not want to be a fly on the wall of that Airbus A330 when the pilot said they’d be pulling an angry Dad and turning back around. I’m imagining lots of folks letting out aggressive sighs and crossing their arms, then deciding to order another seven beers and watch Minions: The Rise of Gru.
As reported by the Guardian, the plane refuelled at Sydney Airport before choofing off again at about 11.30pm on Sunday for Flight 2: Electric Boogaloo.
The five-hour closure of the airspace at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport caused more than 350 domestic and international flights to and from the airport to be diverted, delayed or canned altogether.
Manila International Airport Authority general manager Cesar Chiong told ANC news channel the power outage was caused by an unprecedented failure of the airport’s primary and secondary power supplies, which is truly unlucky.
I know this particular mid-flight uey incident was out of Qantas’ control, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t waiting with bated breath for a third airline to jump on the trend. Siri, play DJ Khaled saying “another one”.
