Qantas flight to Dubai returns to Sydney due to technical snag

Qantas flight QF1 flying from Sydney to Dubai was forced to turn back an hour into its journey on Wednesday following a technical snag.

The Airbus A380 aircraft was reportedly flying at 9,800 feet instead of the normal 25,000 when it turned around, according to Australian media reports.

A Qantas spokesperson said: “The captain of today’s QF 1 from Sydney to Dubai decided to return to Sydney about an hour into the flight after a cockpit indicator light reported a fault with part of the system that helps regulate the cabin temperature.

“This system carries hot air from the engines which is used to help heat the cabin.

“Because the flight was only an hour out of Sydney, it was more practical to return to Sydney where we do a lot of our A380 maintenance to have the fault inspected.

“Our engineers are on standby for the aircraft’s arrival and we hope to have the fault fixed and customers on their way as soon as possible.”

The aircraft took off at 4.11pm local time, according to flight tracking site flightaware.

[Live Update] Qantas flight #QF1 is returning to Sydney due to warning light with the heating/cooling systems. pic.twitter.com/1h7coVAZiA

— Brendan Grainger (@S118869) August 3, 2016