‘Unsettling’ emergency on Qantas flight

A Qantas flight has been forced to divert course and make a sudden landing following a “depressurisation issue”.

QF1871 from Townsville to Brisbane diverted and landed safely in the Central Queensland town of Rockhampton on Tuesday morning, with pilots bringing the plane down after making a squawk 7700 – or a general emergency – call.

FlightRadar data, posted to Central Queensland Plane Spotting page, shows a rapid decrease in altitude within minutes.

“Something up with QantasLink (Alliance Airlines) flight QF1871 E190 VH-UYR down from Townsville to Brisbane,” the blog page posted.

“Currently squeaking 7700 and rapid descent now diverting to Rockhampton airport by the looks.”

The flight left Townsville at 6am and was scheduled to land in Brisbane at 7.50am but touched down in Rockhampton about 7.15am.

A Qantas spokeswoman told NewsWire the flight was safely diverted to Rockhampton after experiencing a depressurisation issue.

“The flight landed normally and we’ll get passengers on their way to Brisbane on other flights this morning,” the spokeswoman said.

“We understand this would have been an unsettling experience for our customers and want to thank them for their patience and understanding.”

NewsWire understands the pilots descended the aircraft to 10,000 feet and requested a priority landing after receiving the indication of a potential issue.

The incident comes just two days after a Qantas flight damaged part of a runway during a takeoff at Perth airport.

Footage posted online showed parts of the tarmac ripped off as QF71 took off from Perth to Singapore.

A Perth airport spokesman said the takeoff damaged some runway pavement.

“Following a short full closure, the main runway was reopened to operate some departing services, while urgent pavement maintenance works were undertaken,” the spokesman said.

“Only one freight service made a diversion during the time with all other services continuing to operate safely.”