Two Qantas flights turned back to Sydney

Melbourne, Australia - November 19, 2012: Qantas Airways Airbus A380 registered VH-OQF takes off as QF93 to Los Angeles (LAX) from Melbourne International Airport at Tullamarine, Victoria.

Qantas copped a bout of bad luck last Friday, after not one but two flights were turned back to Sydney due to aircraft issues.

Both planes were forced to dump fuel in order to return and land in their home port.

Qantas flight QF 7 from Sydney to Dallas was forced back to Sydney International Airport at 4:38pm AEST, after it was discovered the flaps on the aircraft (attached to the wings) were unable to retract, meaning the aircraft can’t fly efficiently.

A Qantas spokesperson said, “As the Dallas flight is our longest on the network, the captain made the decision to return to Sydney.

“The aircraft – an Airbus A380 – will be inspected by engineers.”

The plane was met by firetrucks on the runway, as a safety precaution.

Meanwhile, Qantas flight QF 63 from Sydney to Johannesburg also needed to return to Sydney due to a cracked pane of glass on the aircraft windscreen.

The spokesperson stated, “An aircraft windscreen is made up of three layers of glass, the outer pane had cracked but did not compromise the integrity of the aircraft.

“The aircraft was safe to continue to Johannesburg but the captain made the decision to return as the windscreen will be replaced at Qantas’ engineering base in Sydney.

“The aircraft – Boeing 747-400 landed safely and without incident.”

Qantas on Friday was then tasked with the mammoth job of accommodating passengers or transporting them home, before arranging replacement flights.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation and Safety Authority (CASA) told The Guardian it was standard for long-haul flights that were forced to land earlier than expected to dump fuel, in order to reduce weight so the aircraft could land safely.

You can see the Dallas-bound flight dumping fuel from the window here:

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