Just a little over a week after a Qantas A380 had to divert to Baku, Azerbaijan, QF1, another A380, had to divert again. This time, it diverted to Athens, Greece and spent over a day on the ground.
Qantast A380 Diverted to Athens for over 24 Hours
On January 2, Qantas flight QF1 from Sydney to Singapore and then on to London had to divert to Athens, Greece. Athens, while a major international airport, does not typically get an Airbus A380 flying in. The cause for the diversion was a “critically ill” passenger onboard the flight, according a Qantas statement.
“Our flight from Singapore to London made an unscheduled landing at Athens International Airport in Greece after a passenger became critically unwell on the flight.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.”
From Flightradar24
The flight was originally only supposed to be on the ground for a short time after arriving in Athens at 7am on January 3. However, it only took off again for London a short while ago, at 3:54PM, January 4 (local time). This meant this A380 was on the ground in Greece for over a day, an airline and plane that the Greek capitol never really see otherwise.
The delay was due to the crew timing out on their duty hours and since Qantas does not have any staff in Athens, the crew and passengers were provided with overnight accommodation and they resumed their trip today.
I have not been able to find out what happened to the passenger but I certainly do hope he or she is ok. Given Qantas statement and the extraordinary cost and measures they went to to get this passenger full medical care, it certainly was something of a serious nature.
Unfortunately, the passenger died. I was on the next day flight that was cancelled. On the re-scheduled flight (24 hours later), Qantas left a letter to all passengers on board explaining what had happened the day prior.
Athens was chosen because of the length of the runway, and they had to fly in crew to bring the plane back to LHR as the existing crew were out of flight hours.
All very sad.
Oh, wow. That is so sad. I’m sure that was very emotional for you all also. Thanks for letting me know.