Qantas superjumbo grounded at LAX

A Qantas A380 was grounded at the Los Angeles international airport due to a minor technical problem, disrupting the travel plans of nearly 450 passengers on the Sydney-bound flight.

Passengers on board the carrier’s first superjumbo, called the Nancy-Bird Walton, waited on the tarmac for more than four hours on Sunday night because of low oil pressure in one of the aircraft’s engines.

This was the first grounding of one of the three A380s in the Qantas fleet.

“We’ve boarded passengers, [the captain has] started the engine and he’s received an indication light in the cockpit of low oil pressure in one of the engines,” a spokeswoman for Qantas spokeswoman said.

Flight QF12 from Los Angeles to Sydney was scheduled to depart LAX at 10:30pm on Sunday local time, but had to be rescheduled for mid-day Tuesday departure.

Eventually, all of the passengers disembarked and were transported by bus to hotels where they were provided with overnight accommodation.

“In no way was this a safety issue, but Qantas will always take precautionary measures and ensure safety before schedule,” the spokeswoman for the airline said.

The Qantas spokeswoman added: “Technical issues happen to aircraft all around the world every single day, we have not had a recurrence of issues with any of the A380s and not the Nancy-Bird Walton.”

Thanks to www.smh.com.au for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.qantas.com.au