In a week when its whole fleet was grounded amid a dispute with striking staff, the last thing Qantas needed was an engine failure on a plane carrying a man with more than 3 million Twitter followers.
Stephen Fry was on board a Qantas A380 superjumbo diverted to Dubai that landed safely on Friday after an oil problem forced pilots to shut down one of its four engines. "Bugger. Forced to land in Dubai. An engine has decided not to play," he tweeted.
The flight crew noticed a problem with the oil level, forcing it to shut down the engine, according to a Qantas spokeswoman, Olivia Wirth. Flight QF31, heading from Singapore to London, landed safely with its 258 passengers and 25 crew unhurt.
A year ago another Qantas A380 suffered a midair engine explosion after takeoff from Singapore. In that case a defective engine pipe leaked oil, sparking a fire that destroyed a turbine disc and sent pieces of the disc into the plane's wing, an Australian safety report said. A380s around the world were grounded so the engine-maker Rolls-Royce could replace the part.
Wirth said the anniversary was a coincidence and the events were unrelated. "This is a one-off incident," she said of the latest engine problem. "Obviously it will be a priority of ours to work out what the particular problem is in this engine."
Engineers were inspecting the plane in Dubai to see whether it could continue to London. The airline was finding hotels or alternative flights for passengers, Wirth said.
Qantas grounded its entire fleet last weekend and threatened to lock out unions that had been staging months of strikes. The move stranded thousands of passengers around the world and enraged Australian government officials, who ordered an emergency tribunal hearing. On Sunday, the tribunal ordered the airline to end the lockout and the unions to halt their strikes. Flights resumed on Tuesday.
On Wednesday officials said police were investigating the suspected sabotage of the entertainment system on a Qantas plane. Qantas said engineers noticed several wires were cut on the plane's in-flight entertainment system on 26 October, at the height of the labour dispute. The engineers' union said it was unlikely the plane was sabotaged because of anything to do with the dispute.
As passengers were kept waiting on the tarmac at Dubai for more than an hour, according to Fry, the comedian tweeted his frustration: "@abcnews24 So either Sydney send another one out or they come to an accommodation with Emirates. Either way not a great week for #qantas !"
The airline was finally moved to reply via its own Twitter account after Fry tweeted that he had left his wallet on the plane and was considering "taking up smoking again. Possibly with heroin, crack and MDMA mixed in & all washed down with vodka."
Qantas Airways responded: "@stephenfry No need for such drastic action Mr Fry, your wallet has been found and is on its way back to you at the terminal."
In the end Fry seemed at last partially mollified as his wallet was returned and he received a letter of apology from Qantas. "Reunited with wallet & cards so v relieved ! Hurrah. Qantas have gone to the trouble & expense of this: which is nice."
