In the latest in a string of airline woes, a Qantas 747 bound for Los Angeles suffered a fuel-leak and was grounded at Brisbane Airport. A Qantas spokesperson confirmed that passengers aboard Qantas Flight 175 were instructed to leave the aircraft at noon on the eleventh as engineers checked the outbound plane for other problems. “A Qantas flight to LA was delayed by three and a half hours due to a technical issue with the fuel systems,” the spokesperson said. Passengers were first told of a problem when they were informed that the plane would have a short delay because the LAX gate wouldn’t be ready for them.

Later, passengers were told about the leaking fuel system. According to one passenger, “The pilot at first just said they ‘think there’s a fuel leak, they’re not quite sure, they’ve got the engineers looking’, and then an air hostess said they’d found a fuel leak and they all needed us to disembark.” When the passengers were escorted off the flight, they were greeted by fire trucks and emergency responders. Passengers aboard the flight were held in a separate area until they were permitted to re-enter the main terminal, where they were offered food vouchers.

After correcting the problem, the flight was returned to the active list, and was permitted to fly to its destination. According to Qantas, “…it was a minor problem.” Consumer faith in Qantas has taken a significant hit in recent months as the carrier has experienced several problems in recent months. In the most spectacular of these, an onboard explosion tore a large hole in the body of a Qantas aircraft. The explosion was caused by the explosion of an oxygen tank in the plane’s cargo area.

Learn more at: www.qantas.com/au