Passengers have recalled the moment their Qantas flight from Townsville to Brisbane dropped thousands of metres in a few minutes due to a depressurisation issue.
QF1871 departed at 8.50am today but, about 20 minutes into the flight, the pilot soon received an indication alerting them to an issue.
A Qantas spokesperson confirmed a depressurisation issue occurred.
It is understood the pilot then descended the aircraft to 10,000 feet (3048 metres) and requested priority landing at the closest airport.
“Just to keep you in the loop, passing about 29,000 feet we lost pressurisation,” the pilot was heard saying in the cabin.
The aircraft had dropped a total of 21,000 feet (6400 metres) in just six minutes.
“He just said emergency descent so we started coming down,” passenger Shelly Davey told 9news.
“It was quite scary because your stomach just jumps,” passenger Naomi Lynch said.
A Qantas spokesperson confirmed the aircraft experienced a depressurisation issue and was forced to land at Rockhampton Airport.
“At this altitude, we’ve come down to we can’t continue to Brisbane because we don’t have the required fuel as we come lower we tend to burn a lot more fuel,” the pilot said.
“I do apologise for this inconvenience but safety is paramount.”
The aircraft touched down, where maintenance crews were waiting.
All 94 passengers were then put on Qantas’ next two flights out.
“There was zero communication on the ground so the only way we knew was to check the Qantas app and that was changing back forth back forth with different flights different times,” Lynch said.
Andrew and Shelly Davey faced more delays in Brisbane, after missing their earlier flight.
“We’re heading to Hervey Bay back home. Unfortunately, we’ve missed our flight this morning but we’re on another one this afternoon,” Andrew said.
Meanwhile, Lynch is fearing her flight back to Townsville on Thursday.
“I’m not looking forward to it. I’m actually quite sick in the stomach from the whole scenario today,” she said.
