Brand new Airbus faces delays from mechanical problems

A Qantas Airbus A380 jet that was scheduled to fly from Melbourne to Los Angeles was reportedly delayed for over four hours, while engineers scrambled to sort mechanical problems. All the 443 passengers on board were left stranded on the runway for over four hours.

This delay was noted in an Airbus that was put to service just a few days back. The airbus was scheduled to depart at noon when a mechanical fault was noted that forced the airline to reschedule departure to almost 23 hours later.

Initially the airplane was delayed by an hour and half, when a fuel gauge fault was noted by the airline crew. The problem was duly noted and fixed but it reappeared during taxiing forcing the crew to abort take off. The flight was then finally cancelled at around 5.15 pm when it came to light that the crew would exceed their duty time limits.

The passengers on board the plane were not allowed to disembark while the problem was being sorted out. The strict security measures for US bound flights required re screening of all the passengers and were highly impractical. However, the passengers were provided with refreshments and were allowed to use the in flight entertainment system while on-board.

Simon Rushton, the spokesman for Qantas, in his statement said that the delay was due to a fuel indication defect. The passengers were allowed the option of either staying in a hotel or free transport to and from the airport to their homes. The aircraft also was reportedly one of the newest in the acquired fleet and had arrived just at the end of December.