16 August 2018

Two pilots taken to hospital after emergency landing at Canberra Airport last night

| Glynis Quinlan
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A file photo of a Qantas plane at Canberra Airport.

Two pilots were taken to Canberra Hospital late last night after a Qantas plane made an emergency landing at Canberra Airport.

Police and emergency services responded to a request for assistance at 11.46 pm last night (August 15), after a Qantas freight service travelling from Brisbane to Melbourne diverted to land in Canberra.

A spokesperson for the ACT Emergency Services Agency said the ACT Ambulance Service transported the two pilots to hospital “in a stable condition”.

A Qantas spokesperson said the plane was diverted to Canberra following a technical fault with the onboard air conditioning system that affected the ability to maintain pressure in the cabin. There were no passengers on-board because it was a freight service.

“The aircraft landed normally in Canberra and engineers are inspecting the aircraft today,” said the Qantas spokesperson.

Manager of Airside Operations at Canberra Airport, Gary McGivern, said the airport activated its airport emergency plan in response to the incident.

“Responders included Aviation Rescue and Firefighting Service, the Australian Federal Police, and ACT Emergency Services,” Mr McGivern said.

“Canberra Airport regularly practices for these types of emergencies and are pleased that the plane landed safely and emergency services were able to attend to the pilots quickly.”

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Capital Retro9:18 am 17 Aug 18

I hope the Canberra Airport management has waived the landing fee.

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