Passengers are fuming after being left on tarmac in “boiling plane” for four hours
Qantas passengers are demanding compensation after their flight was diverted to a military base after a mechanical failure and were left on the tarmac for four hours.
Flight QF171 left Melbourne at 9 am and was bound for Wellington, New Zealand, but the mechanical issue meant its intended landing at 2:35 pm was aborted.
The plane was diverted to the Ohakea air base, which is 150kms north of the New Zealand capital, but passengers were unable to disembark due to no customs officials available.
Passengers were unable to leave the plane until 7pm.
"Sitting on the tarmac in the sun, getting extremely hot in the plane. Many passengers visibly distressed," one man wrote about his experience.
Those on board complained that the plane was too hot, and they went without food after 11 am New Zealand time, which was when breakfast was served on the plane.
Passenger Tracy Johnson spoke to Stuff NZ and said that she felt ill by the time they disembarked and that she couldn’t understand why passengers weren’t allowed to wait in a room at the air base.
"An elderly lady hugged me when we got off, she thought she was going to faint ... we all did," she said.
"We need compensation."
Passenger Ryan Newington from Melbourne said that people were “visibly distressed” on the flight.
"The cabin staff have been very kind and considerate which is helping, but lots of people [are] understandably frustrated."
New Zealand customs has since apologised for the delay.
"We needed to divert staff from the Napier office to attend, so obviously there's a timelapse before they can get there physically," said Terry Brown, group manager board of operations with New Zealand Customs.
"We did look to pre-clear the passenger process, we have pretty advanced information systems around the passengers that are on board the aircraft so were able to do that," he told Newshub.
Qantas has apologised as well.
"We apologise to our customers for the disruption but safety will always be our first priority."