Jet in 'white vapour' scare

[Dave Noble]

A Qantas Boeing 767 carrying 230 passengers and crew was forced to land at Sydney Airport shortly after take-off today after air-traffic control reported seeing a white substance coming from the jet.

Flight QF 411 took off for Melbourne at 7.30am, when the substance was noticed streaming from its undercarriage.

Article at Jet in 'white vapour' scare - Travel - smh.com.au

Dave

 

[NM]

Similar article on news.com.au.

 

[Tooner]

I was on said QF411 this morning.

It all started well when we pushed back dead on 7:30, but we were barely over the ocean when the Captain mentioned the Tower had pointed out we were venting from the left hand side (I don't recall him saying smoke or vapour).

We duly landed again, then stopped just short of the East-West runway while the fire trucks inspected us, then after the all clear, back to Gate 17 for the engineers to go over us. We sat and waited at the gate, while the extenders were extended, the spoilers lifted etc etc, until finally the Captain announced that they had found a water pipe which leaked water, which became vapour, and appeared to be smoke from below. Net result, everyone off, could take 10 minutes or an hour. Cabin Crew told all QP members to go to QP, rest hang around Gate 17.

The queue at the service desk was huge, so I went into the club, and came back when a general announcement "could all WP members on Flight 411 please go to the head of the queue" and traded my 411 boarding pass for a 419 boarding pass. I hate to think what happened to the poor punters at Gate 17.

So, my original light 407 was cancelled. I was punted to 411, flew SYD - SYD, then 419 SYD - MEL, luggage to follow at some stage!

All in a lot of fun (!), though the best touch was when the Senior said "Qantas is all about safety" in the announcement!