< p>Disgruntled passengers were ready to tear the crew of the low-cost Jetstar plane to pieces after it turned out that due to someone else's mistake they landed in Melbourne, and not on the golden beaches of Bali.
Jetstar flight JQ35 departed Melbourne on Tuesday, December 27 at 23:14, i.e. 5 hours late. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was in the air for about four hours and crossed five states, reaching the coast of Australia, when it suddenly turned around and headed in the opposite direction.
Passengers returned to Melbourne Tullamarine Airport at almost 7 am on Wednesday.
Airline — the budget subsidiary of Australian carrier Qantas, said the plane was turned back because the Indonesian authorities refused to give it permission to land in Bali.
Jetstar usually uses small narrow-body aircraft such as the Airbus A321 on this route, and, as it turns out, the carrier was unable to secure landing rights for the larger, wide-body aircraft that operated on Tuesday evening.
“Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, the change to a larger aircraft was not approved by the local regulator authority in Indonesia”, — the airline said in a statement.
“As soon as this became clear, the B787 returned to Melbourne, and we provided passengers with another aircraft.”
Jetstar did not explain the reason for the change of aircraft at the last minute, but , given the late departure of the flight, there could have been a technical problem that prevented the use of a conventional aircraft. The airline appears to have selected a free aircraft capable of operating the route, but has been unable to secure landing rights from the Indonesian authorities.