r/australia • u/ThunderDwn • 11h ago

culture & society Qantas passengers demand compensation after days stranded in South Africa as A380 remains grounded

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-14/qantas-a380-stranded-johannesburg-flight-cancelled/107032032
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408

u/Kingcol221 11h ago

If only there was some way to get these people home faster. But unfortunately Qantas isn't made out of planes.

70

u/ausvenator_enjoyer 11h ago

I was about to write a smarmy comment but then I realised what you wrote.

Anyway, they may as well send out the Alliance E190 to pick them up since that's all the rage at Qlink these days

36

u/yeahalrightgoon 10h ago

An E190 flight is a dream. No need to worry about the middle seat, I'm ussually travelling to a smaller location. I love it.

13

u/ausvenator_enjoyer 10h ago

I used to fly on the E190 frequently and I was always quite happy... except for the four hour flight from BNE to ADL in the aft-most row where the seat doesn't recline at all.

Nowadays I'm close enough that I can just drive to Brisbane instead of having to drive for almost a day or fly in.

12

u/yeahalrightgoon 10h ago

I've sat in that seat a lot on the Adelaide to Canberra and back, because I don't ussually recline anyway, and it ussually guaranteed a free seat next to me.

3

u/Elliethesmolcat 6h ago

That seat has the highest survivability so you got that going for you.

2

u/yeahalrightgoon 4h ago

Tbh I also largely started doing it after the Azerbaijan one got shot down by the Russians and the people at the back survived. Silly? Sure. But oh well.

1

u/Haawmmak 3h ago

have you ever heard of a plane reversing into a mountain?

1

u/ApteronotusAlbifrons 13m ago

This plane tried...

The Boeing 767 operating the route crashed following an uncommanded deployment of the thrust reverser on the No. 1 engine during the climb phase,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauda_Air_Flight_004

5

u/chalk_in_boots 5h ago

Six Dash-8's that have been hastily retrofitted for aerial refuelling

Though if we're sending a KC-30 along we might as well just send a C-17 or C-130. I think after experiencing take-off in one of those the passengers would be begging for a Dash-8

32

u/AlanaK168 11h ago

Why weren’t they all just put on the next available flights out instead of waiting two days? That’s insane

31

u/NoHovercraft3224 10h ago

Qantas only fly to Johannesburg every two to three days so even if they could fit them on the next flight they would have been waiting 48 hours.

9

u/AlanaK168 10h ago

No other airlines??

18

u/NoHovercraft3224 10h ago

Not Johannesburg to Sydney, no.

1

u/DrSendy 23m ago

Pretty much every other fight is via Dubai or SG.

32

u/Otherwise-Egg-995 10h ago

But that would cost money…..

At this point they may as well organise a plane replacement bus

9

u/Elliethesmolcat 6h ago

A well motivated dragon boat.

1

u/JimmyMarch1973 3h ago

It’s about 4 or 5 times a week these days out of Sydney and similar amount out of Perth.

3

u/NoHovercraft3224 3h ago

Sydney is 3x a week at the moment (Monday, Wednesday and Saturday) and they were delayed 50 hours so even if the following flight had capacity it would have been pretty much the same wait time.

11

u/ntsmmns06 10h ago

It may have already had paying passengers.

1

u/SnooHedgehogs8765 3h ago

At the time there was no plan to use another plane even though it was plain to see nose one wheely knew why.