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The Qantas passenger and flight attendant were taken to hospital with head and neck injuries after sudden turbulence
- QantasLink plan forced to backtrack after turmoil
- The sudden turbulence caused five people to be injured.
- Flight attendant and passenger were taken to hospital.
A passenger and a Qantas flight attendant were rushed to hospital after a plane ran into severe turbulence on its way to Hervey Bay from Brisbane.
The QantasLink aircraft was forced to return to Brisbane due to turbulence with an ambulance which found it on the ground.
A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said one person had neck pain while the other had a head laceration.
In all, five people were treated for injuries and two were taken to hospital.
The Qantaslink aircraft was forced to reverse due to turbulence and was found on the ground by an ambulance.
It is understood that some of the injured passengers were not wearing seat belts when the plane was suddenly hit by turbulence.
It is the latest Qantas flight to face chaos after several had to make emergency landings in January.
On January 29, a QantasLink flight from Sydney to Coffs Harbor was drastically delayed after experiencing a landing gear problem.
Approximately 10 minutes into the flight, the pilot requested clearance to turn the Dash 8 aircraft around and return to Sydney airport, landing safely just after 5pm on Sunday before the unimpressed passengers were switched to another flight. .
Earlier this month, a Qantas plane en route from Auckland to Sydney issued an emergency advisory after an engine failed over the Tasman Sea.
While, just a day later, another Fiji-bound flight had to turn around due to a “mechanical problem”, and both planes also returned safely.
The series of incidents continued when on January 20, two Qantas planes leaving Melbourne were forced to turn around within minutes of each other due to mechanical problems, the fourth incident in three days for the airline.
Flight QF1516 from Melbourne to Canberra was reversed after the pilots noticed a problem with the flaps on the Boeing 717 aircraft.
The flight took off from Melbourne airport at 10:10 a.m. and was in the sky for just 17 minutes before turning around and landing at 10:27 a.m.
While passengers on flight QF430 from Melbourne to Sydney were separately alerted to a “minor engine problem” and that plane turned around.
A packed Qantas plane traveling from Melbourne to Sydney last month was forced to turn around mid-air after pilots were alerted to a “minor engine problem”.
The Boeing 737 aircraft took off from Tullamarine Airport at 9:28 a.m. before completing a long loop and returning just 50 minutes later at 10:18 a.m.
Qantas’ national chief executive, Andrew David, previously downplayed the problems, saying the airline was averaging only about 60 returns a year out of 10,000 across the industry.
It added that an estimated 400 to 500 engines a year on all narrow-body jets worldwide go out, and that Qantas’ 737 shutdown rate was “well below the industry average.”
“It’s important to put these things in context. In aviation, there are air diversions and air returns every day for a variety of reasons,” he said.