Amid Mideast Turmoil, 15-Hour Flight Takes Passengers From Perth to Perth
A Qantas Airlines flight that left from Perth, Australia, on Monday night returned to the same city the next morning after more than 15 consecutive hours in the air — thanks to turmoil in the Middle East.
The flight, QF33, which was supposed to land in Paris, was among a number of airplane journeys that were disrupted after attacks in the region involving the United States, Israel and Iran prompted officials to temporarily close air space in the region.
The Qantas Airlines plane was above the Arabian Sea, near southwestern India, when it had to turn around, according to FlightAware, which compiles public flight information.
The flight had been scheduled to last more than 16 hours. Instead, it left Perth Airport at 7:51 p.m. local time on Monday and landed back there at 11:04 a.m. Tuesday, FlightAware said.
Qantas said it had to divert the flight from Perth to Paris back to Perth because of 'additional airspace closures and congestion through the Middle East.' Another Qantas airlines flight that left Perth on Monday was diverted from its journey to London and instead landed in Singapore.
Some airspace in the region was closed after Iran launched an attack on Monday against Al Udeid Air Base, an American base in Qatar. The strike was in retaliation for U.S. attacks on nuclear targets in Iran.
The closures caused disruptions to several flights in the Middle East, Australia's foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said on social media on Tuesday. 'Closure of airspace around transit hubs may impact flights globally, causing delays and cancellations,' Ms. Wong said.
Another Qantas flight that had been diverted was meant to go from Perth to London and lasted 12 hours and 41 minutes, according to FlightAware. The flight from Perth to London generally takes more than 17 hours.
The airline said on Tuesday that its flight from Perth to London was operating as planned. There were no scheduled flights from Perth to Paris on Tuesday. Qantas Airlines did not respond to a request for comment.
The passengers on both diverted flights were given accommodations in the cities where the flights landed, The West Australian reported. The flight to Paris was carrying 216 passengers and 14 crew and the one to London was carrying 199 passengers and 14 crew, the newspaper reported.
The disruptions also affected Virgin Australia, which said on Tuesday that there were 25,000 passengers affected by travel disruptions in Doha. 'The immediate priority is clearing the significant backlog of those passengers and flying them to their final destination,' the airline said.
Virgin Airlines said flights to Doha, which are operated by Qatar Airways, were resuming operations on Tuesday after Qatar temporarily closed its air space.
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