Reports show that a Qantas Boeing 767 aircraft made a very rare diversion to help a sea rescue mission on Monday. The pilots were asked to monitor a life raft drifting off the southern Australia coast. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it requested Qantas’ help after a search and rescue aircraft found the raft drifting 95 miles off the town of Esperance early Monday morning.

A spokesperson for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said that they did request Qantas’ help. They diverted the aircraft, because there was going to be a gap between when the fix wing (rescue) aircraft had to leave the scene and a RAAF Hercules (air force transport plane) was going to be on the scene. No one wanted to lose sight of the life raft. Qantas was certainly willing to assist them, which was a very good thing.

Qantas went on to say that Flight 475 was carrying 226 passengers from Sydney to Perth. They were very briefly diverted to keep an eye on the life raft, which had set off a distress beacon. A spokesperson for Qantas said that the Hercules ended up making it to the scene before the Qantas flight. Thus, Qantas service was not required in the end.

The good news is that three people were later rescued from the life raft. Thus, this is one mission that ended up having a happy ending for the people that were involved. Experts point out that it’s good to see a big company like Qantas willing to help people. It just proves that there are some companies out there that really do care about the general public.