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Friday, 16 June, 2000

Qantas jet's engines stop, lights go out

By SCOTT HANNAFORD

THE CANBERRA TIMES

A Qantas Boeing 747-400 aircraft had to be towed back to the terminal building in Sydney last night after it broke down on the tarmac, causing delays of more than four hours to passengers.

Flight QF1 to London via Bangkok was due to depart Sydney's international airport at 4.55pm but did not leave until after 9pm after being repaired.

A passenger, who did not want to be named, told The Canberra Times that lights and other electrical systems had broken down and the plane's engines had failed to start.

"The cabin lights blacked out several times and then it just stopped," he said.

"He [the captain] then said, 'I'm going to start engine three now and hopefully the other engines will start after that and then we will be on our way' ".

A Qantas spokeswoman described the incident as "a rolling engineering delay" resulting from a minor defect. She would not say what the defect was.

"These things are quite routine . . . and the problem was fixed quickly," she said.

The breakdown follows a list of other recent problems on Qantas flights. The Qantas spokeswoman said she could not confirm any of the incidents had occurred on the same aircraft.

It was unknown how many passengers were on the plane, which has a 400 person capacity, at the time.

The passenger said they had been left sitting in the aircraft for two hours in stifling heat before they were allowed to get off. "It was bloody awful . . . and I was just waiting for someone to get up and demand to get off the plane," he said.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news2/news6.shtml

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), June 16, 2000