British actor and TV wit Stephen Fry provided expletive laden live coverage of the unexpected diversion of a Qantas plane to his 3 million Twitter followers today
The embattled Australian airline was carrying Fry to London from Singapore on a Airbus A380 when the pilot noticed a problem with one of its four engines and changed route to Dubai where all the passengers were forced to disembark.
Fry, who had been touring Australia for his programme "QI", was one of the 283 passengers on the flight who then spent some time on the tarmac in Dubai as airline staff decided what to do next.
"Bugger. Forced to land in Dubai. An engine has decided not to play," was Fry's first light-hearted take on micro-blogging site Twitter on the matter.
After regular updates on what was happening, including that he was on a bus from the plane to the airport terminal, the prolific tweeter launched an expletive-laden tweet to his 3.3 million followers.
"I've left my wallet on the sodding plane," he revealed. "Hell's teeth this really isn't my day. Will not leave without it.
"It's at times like this a man considers taking up smoking again. Possibly with heroin, crack and MDMA mixed in & all washed down with vodka."
The tweets prompted this reply from Qantas' Twitter account: "Mr Fry, don't worry we will get your wallet back. We know the crew are keeping you updated and we are talking with them. So sorry."
And they did. "Reunited with wallet & cards so v relieved! Hurrah," wrote Fry.
Flight QF31 was four hours into the flight from Singapore to London when the pilot decided the oil pressure in one engine made it necessary to reroute to Dubai.
On 4 November 2010, flight QF32, also out of Singapore, experienced an engine blast en route to Sydney. That flight landed safely despite damage to the plane, but the incident prompted Qantas to ground all its A380s.
Qantas, which last week shut down its entire fleet over an escalating industrial dispute with unions, stranding thousands of passengers, subjected its Airbus A380 planes to intensive safety checks after the 2010 mid-air blast.
Qantas said there were no links between the two incidents.
"This is a coincidence," spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said.
"It is an issue which has been detected in engine number four and it involves the pressure defect of the oil in this particular engine," she told reporters.
"It was shut down in line with procedures and the captain diverted the aircraft and safely arrived in Dubai around two-and-a-half hours later."
The aircraft was being assessed by engineers in Dubai, she added.
"It will be a priority of ours to ensure that we work out exactly what the particular problem is in this engine," Wirth added.
Qantas said it was doing all it could to help passengers.
The latest incident came as Qantas chief Alan Joyce, originally from Tallaght in Dublin, said legal changes being considered by parliament would threaten the firm's viability and cost jobs.
The airline boss was being grilled by a senate committee over proposed changes to the Qantas Sales Act, which seeks to ensure the airline remains majority Australian owned and controlled.
The inquiry was called after Qantas announced an Asia-focused restructuring in August, which has led to a bitter industrial dispute that culminated in Joyce grounding the airline last week.
Qantas services only returned to normal on Tuesday after an 46-hour shutdown that stranded 70,000 passengers in 22 cities worldwide.
