{"id":67951,"date":"2024-06-18T15:38:11","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T05:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=67951"},"modified":"2024-06-18T15:38:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T05:38:18","slug":"australian-passengers-caught-up-in-qatar-airways-flight-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=67951","title":{"rendered":"Australian passengers caught up in Qatar Airways flight nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Australian<\/a> passengers have been caught up in a travel nightmare after they were boarded on a plane they say was \u201cbillowing smoke\u201d just hours earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qatar Airways flight QR-204 was scheduled to leave Athens in Greece at 2pm on Monday and was bound for Doha in Qatar, with many on the flight planning to travel on to Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the flight never left the tarmac and passengers, including 7NEWS employee Jodie Grocock, labelled the entire ordeal as \u201cappalling\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said they were waiting at the gate to board the flight when her husband said he thought he saw smoke coming from a Qatar plane engine and a fire truck arrive at the tarmac.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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A passenger filmed smoke coming from the plane before they boarded. Credit: 7NEWS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The smoke was extinguished, but the passengers were still boarded on the flight with \u201cno communication\u201d about what had happened, Grocock said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey started the plane, and it stopped straight away. They then started it again, and it stopped straight away,\u201d Grocock told 7NEWS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI actually lost count of how many times they did this, but they did it over a period of about two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey had no drinks on the plane. They had a little baby who was just about passing out. It\u2019s the most disgusting thing I\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter two hours, the captain made an announcement there was a technical issue with some equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grocock said it was a 35C day in Greece, and that it felt about 45C on the plane, as the air-conditioning was not working, nor were the toilets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were dripping. You could not stop the sweating and people were getting agitated. It was ridiculous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople were complaining. Like one man was saying: \u2018We\u2019re going to die. Get us off this plane\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI asked for water and they said they had run out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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People on board the Qatar flight. Credit: 7NEWS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After about four hours on board, the passengers were eventually let off and then spent another four hours in the terminal trying to get hotels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were then told they had been rebooked on a 6am flight the following day, but many passengers said they were afraid to get on another Qatar Airways flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a flight to Doha in the morning and then another 10.5-hour layover before getting back to Melbourne,\u201d Grocock said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy 19-hour flight is going to take me 51 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passenger Louise Morfis filmed the smoke billowing from the plane and said she tried to raise it with staff, but said they told her there was no smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was a little bit anxious. I actually asked the ground staff in Greek if is it safe to board, and he looked at me like: \u2018What are you on about?\u2019\u201d she told 7NEWS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement to 7NEWS, a spokesperson for Qatar Airways blamed a \u201ctechnical issue\u201d for the delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a result, all passengers were asked to disembark the aircraft and were supported by our staff at Athens International Airport (ATH) while maintenance teams worked to resolve the issue,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe flight later departed from ATH and arrived in DOH (Doha) at 10.30 local time on Tuesday 11 June 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe safety of our passengers and crew remains our highest priority and we apologise for any inconvenience caused by this delay. All passengers were assisted upon arrival into DOH to ensure smooth onward connections to their final destination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other videos taken on board show a male passenger taking his shirt off due to the heat, and others fanning themselves with paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 35C in Greece and when we finally came off (the plane) that felt cool, so you can imagine how hot it was on the aircraft,\u201d Morfis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grocock said the passengers were given a letter to apply for compensation, but has no idea what that will be yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7NEWS has contacted Qatar Airways for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: 7News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018They had a little baby who was just about passing out. It\u2019s the most disgusting thing I\u2019ve seen.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":67954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2886,1514],"tags":[4424],"class_list":["post-67951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-qatar","category-qatar-airways","tag-airline"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67955,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67951\/revisions\/67955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}