Share and Follow
A safety mechanism on a Qantas flight was accidentally activated by a crew member moments before taking off, causing a frustrating three-hour-long delay for passengers.
Passengers were forced off of the A380 departing from Los Angeles for Sydney at around 10:30pm on Sunday after a crew member accidentally ejected one of the plane’s 14 emergency slides by ‘jiggling’ a safety handle.
According to FlightAware, the flight was delayed by just under three hours, eventually departing at 1:24am and arriving in Sydney at 11:17am on Wednesday.
One of the passengers told Daily Mail Australia that the delay occurred after the plane had been pushed away from the gate and was on the runway about to take off.
‘There was an indication the door wasn’t closed,’ the passenger said.
‘The crew member went back and jiggled the handle, I’m told, and the slide went off.’
An emergency slide has been accidentally ejected from a Qantas flight (pictured) moments before it took off from LAX to Sydney, leading to a three-hour delay on Sunday night
All of the passengers on board waited out the delay in the Qantas lounge in Los Angeles Airport while the inflatable slide was removed by engineers.
The airline is investigating the circumstances leading to the accidental deployment.
Read Related Also: Child abuse image offences in UK have soared, NSPCC report shows | Internet safety
The mishap comes just four days after Qantas announced it will be creating some 2,000 jobs over the next 18 months for cabin crew, pilots, engineers and other operations roles.
Australia’s national carrier is hoping to introduce 8,500 new jobs in the aviation industry over the next 10 years in order to progressively boosts its aircraft fleet to meet demand for travel.
Qantas currently has 23,500 employees and projects that number will grow to 32,000 by 2033 to support the expected delivery of 299 narrowbody and 12 widebody planes across the same period.
According to a passenger, a crew member was conducting a safety check and ‘jiggled’ a handle causing the slide to inflate down to the tarmac (pictured, Qantas staff)
Two weeks ago, Qantas posted an interim underlying pre-tax profit of $1.43billion in its first return to profitability since the Covid-19 pandemic brought travel to a grinding halt in 2020.
The statutory net profit for the six months to June 30 was $1billion, compared to a $456million net loss a year earlier.
The profit turnaround was delivered despite a 65 per cent increase in fuel costs during the half.
Qantas said domestic flying levels had averaged 94 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, while international capacity also doubled to 60 per cent.
