Jetstar passengers start having panic attacks and kids left ‘starving’ after flight was grounded due to a medical emergency – as they sit in plane for 14 HOURS
- Jestar passengers stuck for 14 hours on diverted plane
- Medical emergency led flight to land in Alice Springs
- Electrical fault kept plane grounded ‘without food’
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Jetstar passengers have endured a nightmarish 14 hours stuck on a plane with half that time waiting on the tarmac with no food.
The JQ30 flight from Bangkok to Melbourne took off at 9.30pm on Saturday night but was diverted to land in the central Australian town of Alice Springs at 7.30am (CST) due to a passenger having a ‘serious medical emergency’.
After landing, an electrical fault was found meaning the plane’s passengers were stranded until a replacement plane could be flown from Sydney.
Travellers were not allowed to disembark during the wait because Alice Springs has no international customs area.
The 320 people on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner began posting on social media that they had spent seven hours in the grounded aircraft without food being offered.
Frustrated passengers wait onboard a Jetstar flight that was stranded for hours at Alice Springs after being diverted to land on a flight from Bangkok to Melbourne because of a medical emergency
‘Passengers are having panic attacks on the plane, several children under three years old are onboard,’ one passenger posted on Instagram.
‘No food has been provided yet.’
Passengers were informed they would need to wait until about 6pm (CST) Sunday to be picked up by the replacement plane being flown in.
‘The mood on the plane is unhappy, even if we could walk on the tarmac, people just want to get some fresh air,’ passenger William Kiss told Channel Nine from inside the aircraft.
‘We’ve been sitting on this plane with flight time included for close to 14 hours.
‘I have had poor experiences with them in the past but this is different kettle of fish.’
Sandwiches were eventually distributed to passengers and they were also offered the chance to disembark and stay in a sealed off space in the Alice Springs terminal.
A spokesperson for Jetstar thanked the customers for their ‘patience and understanding’.
‘We appreciate this has been a lengthy and frustrating delay and the experience has been very uncomfortable,’ the spokesperson said
‘We worked with Border Agencies, the NT Police and the local Airport Authority to provide passengers with the option to disembark into a specially partitioned section of the Airport.
After seven hours stuck inside a grounded plane Jetstar passengers were finally able to get off the aircraft and wait for their replacement flight in this bare section of Alice Springs airport
A desperate post on Instagram revealed the plight of the stranded Jetstar passengers
‘They will then transfer directly onto the replacement aircraft. We have also been working with the local Airport to provide passengers with food, drinks and snacks.’
The spokesperson could not give an update on the health of the passenger who suffered the medical emergency and blamed the delay in getting food distributed on the lack of catering offered by the small Alice Springs airport on a Sunday.
As Alice Springs airport is not equipped to take the luggage off the international place it will not be accompanying passengers on their flight to Melbourne today.
Instead the bags will remain on the aircraft to be flown to Melbourne tomorrow when repairs to the plane have been made.
