Qantas Passengers "dumped" at Christchurch airport after diverting from Wellington after missing curfew

[encryptededdy]

On the topic of tonight's flight;
VH-VZY just landed in SYD QF164 (QFA164) Qantas Flight Tracking and History 04-Jul-2022 (WLG / NZWN-SYD / YSSY) - FlightAware after operating QF164.

QF163 tonight is supposed to be VH-VZY too, so not sure how that's gonna go. Looks like the new scheduled departure is only 15 minutes after the plane touches down (no way). Are they going to delay, get another plane, or divert again? I'm watching with anticipation.

QF163 (QFA163) Qantas Flight Tracking and History - FlightAware

Track Qantas (QF) #163 flight from Sydney to Wellington Int'l

flightaware.com

 

[Quickstatus]

Mike the P1

25 taxis

I doubt Mike the P1 would want to share a taxi.

....

definitely not impossible

If the airline cannot conjure up an airline rep at CHC, I don't think it can get a govt department to get customs/immigration people with the relevant IT equipment out to Palmeston North anytime before sunrise.

 

[Quickstatus]

missed out by 30secs

One would reasonably surmise that a go around would have caused more noise than a landing 30 seconds late.

...........

 

[Quickstatus]

VH-VZY

I know you know but just to be clear (for others) VXY is not the aircraft that diverted to CHC

VZV was the diverted flight

There are 2 SYD-WLG flights: 161/164 and 163/162

 

[Quickstatus]

@encryptededdy
I hope Alan is not going to rinse and repeat:

 

[AviatorInsight]

One would reasonably surmise that a go around would have caused more noise than a landing 30 seconds late.

...........

Yep I concur. So we used full go around thrust just to make it known.

 

[Scr77]

I hope Alan is not going to rinse and repeat:




View attachment 283701

I don’t get it. We’re already 30mins past 20.05. Isn’t it impossible to make it? But flight hasn’t been cancelled yet?

 

[CaptainCurtis]

Looks to be cancelled now.

 

[Scr77]

Looks to be cancelled now.

Yep. Pushed to 1300 tomorrow.

 

[defurax]

Yep. Pushed to 1300 tomorrow.

That's risky, only leaves QF 7 hours delay to make it tomorrow. 6AM scheduled departure would be safer.

 

[Quickstatus]

The other option is to depart SYD prior to 11pm curfew. Land in CHC at 4am, depart at 0530am to arrive in WLG after 0600am

 

[encryptededdy]

Hopefully pax transiting SYD are put up in a hotel tonight...

Nah, but seriously. When will QF learn to accommodate passengers properly when these things happen? The fact that it happens is not a big deal, but it just seems like a complete fail accommodating passengers every time it does happen.

 

[justinbrett]

If the airline cannot conjure up an airline rep at CHC, I don't think it can get a govt department to get customs/immigration people with the relevant IT equipment out to Palmeston North anytime before sunrise.

It is probably the easiest of the two though. You don’t call a government department, customs have a duty number that goes straight to the team. The military use it all the time.

 

[TomVexille]

View attachment 283696
I hope there's no rule against memes

I think you can post that daily at the moment

 

[sudoer]

Would've expected them to find another 737 body in Sydney (from cancelling a SYD-MEL or something) to operate today's SYD-WLG as normal. Weird that they'd rather use the same frame and create another day of delays/cancellations?

 

[defurax]

Would've expected them to find another 737 body in Sydney (from cancelling a SYD-MEL or something) to operate today's SYD-WLG as normal. Weird that they'd rather use the same frame and create another day of delays/cancellations?

Probably needs a 737 that still has a life raft.

 

[henrus]

Probably needs a 737 that still has a life raft.

I wonder what percentage of QF/VA 737's are actually able to fly overseas? Both VA and QF removed life rafts from many of their aircraft meaning they can't operate them more than 400 miles off the coast. Similarly aircraft operating into Australia/New Zealand from overseas need to have up to date pest spraying (once every 8 weeks).

Qantas also seems to only use 737's with in seat screens (only 37 of 75 737's) across the tasman.

 

[TheInsider]

Probably needs a 737 that still has a life raft.

Correct, and other aircraft that may be 'sitting' around in SYD may have to go in for maintenance.

 

[jb747]

Firstly they'd need an actual emergency to go to Palmerston. In the absence of that, it's hard to say how the Kiwi authorities would have treated them, but I doubt that it would have had a quick resolution. And even if the Kiwis didn't get nasty about it, my bet would be that nobody would be permitted to disembark. Everyone would just get to sit there until the time ticked over for them to be able to fly to Wellington.

As to why they departed in the first place, who knows, but given that the track was directly towards Wellington, you'd have to assume that they had some reason to expect to be able to land there.

Talk of taxis, buses, etc is all irrelevant if immigration keeps you locked in the cabin. Christchurch was probably a good alternative to that.

 

[Melburnian1]

Could require some ability to predict the future. I doubt you could even contact any local bus companies after about 6pm.... so not sure how a delay becoming evident some hours later can be planned for...

Not difficult, because where there are railways, bus companies typically can be contacted at any hour of the day or night for 'rail replacement coaches'.

So if the rail operators can get in touch at any time, so can QFi.