Qantas flight to Bangalore makes 10-hour trip to nowhere

Dhaka: A Qantas flight from Sydney to Bangalore turned back midway after crew detected a hydraulic system problem, leaving passengers with a long delay.

Flight QF67 was about five hours into the journey on October 25 when the issue was found. The aircraft, a 22.5-year-old Airbus A330-303, registered VH-QPE, was considered safe to return to Sydney but not to continue to India.

The flight is scheduled to take around 11 hours and 50 minutes, according to the airline's website. Passengers spent roughly 10 hours in the air before landing back in Sydney at 8:30 pm.

Speaking to local media, a Qantas spokesperson said the airline chose Sydney over closer alternatives such as Darwin or Bali partly because of recovery flight options.

Qantas said its engineers were based in Sydney, and a replacement aircraft could be made available there more quickly for the affected passengers.

The recovery flight to Bangalore was scheduled to depart Sydney at 9:30 am on October 26, according to media reports.