Passengers onboard Qantas flight 10 from London to Perth, the Australian carrier’s longest commercial flight, already had a long journey ahead of them, but no one imagined that included extra stops in Bengaluru and then Singapore in a story that demonstrates the downside to ultra-longhaul flights.
Qantas Ultra-Longhaul, One Of World’s Longest Flights, Diverts To Bengaluru Then To Singapore
Qantas 10 is currently one of the longest commercial flights in the world, a 9,009-mile journey between London (LHR) and Perth (PER) that takes 17 hours, 50 minutes flying westbound and one hour less flying east with the jet stream.
But passengers on Friday’s QF10 faced an even longer journey after a medical emergency followed by a crew timeout.
On September 5, 2024, QF10 took off from London Heathrow at 12:58 pm. But a medical emergency occurred onboard, prompting a diversion to the Indian city of Bengaluru (BLR). The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner landed at 2:07 am.
According to one passenger onboard, “Two cardiologists onboard thankfully, they were awesome, as were the crew.”
After the medical issue was handled, the flight took off again at 6:44 am, but by this time, the crew could not legally reach Perth due to maximum crew duty periods so the flight was forced to divert again, this time to Singapore (SIN). The flight landed in Singapore at 2:16 pm local time and was canceled.
Passengers are being rerouted to Perth or their final destinations from Singapore.
The Downsides To Ultra-Longhaul Flights
By all accounts, this appears to be a textbook diversion and was handled well by Qantas. After all, medical emergencies are beyond its control and keeping passengers safe is the most important thing an airline can do.
But the second diversion was all but predictable when you stretch duty limits, as QF10 or any ultra-longhaul flight does. Crews have a maximum time limit in the air for good reason and even with crew rest facilities onboard, we don’t want our pilots or flight attendants fatigued the way you or I would be fatigued if working a 16-hour shift.
I happen to really like ultra-longhaul flights, but I know many do not and I understand why. There is essentially little margin for error: even a longer departure delay could scuttle the flight and lead to this sort of time drain.
CONCLUSION
Qantas 10 from London to Perth diverted to Bengaluru and then Singapore. The pair of diversions show the downside to ultra-longhaul flying, though that risk would not stop me from boarding such a long flight.
Do you like ultra-longhaul flights?
The pax ought to have booked SQ .
At least the second diversion was to SIN, where presumably most of the passengers could leave the airport if they wished while making alternate arrangements. Far preferable to being left in a holding pen in BLR without proper visas. Hopefully QF communicated the plan to the passengers before starting the second leg, though.
Would this stop me from taking an ultra-long haul flight, no, but getting stranded from a diversion is a real risk you have to be willing to accept. I’m willing to accept that, but the bigger thing for me on ultra-long haul flights these days is, I just don’t have the physical stamina to handle 15+ hours in a seat that I used to…
The other advantage of SIN is the large number of flights from there to Aussie cities. And, most of these are on QF or partners. Thus, a pax who was connecting in PER to go to, say, SYD, may now end up on a SIN-SYD n/s.
A diverting tale to be sure.
@Christian … Good one ; another diverting tail was the cat who changed her mind .
It appears QF ran the involved equipment as QF210 about 4 hours after landing SIN-PER to complete the flight (more or less). It appears QF210 was an ‘extra’ section. I assume, but don’t know, that they had staff onboard and took revenue passengers on the flight.
Never got to do an ultra long haul flight. I think the longest flight I’ve been on has been around 14 hours from AKL-Beijing.
No ULH flights for me unless in first class with showers.