Critical medical emergency forces Qantas A380 to divert to Greece

A Qantas Airways Airbus A380 superjumbo jet diverted to Athens, Greece after declaring a critical medical emergency onboard.

The incident took place on January 2, 2023, when the 12.3-year-old Qantas Airways A380-800 double-decker aircraft, registered VH-OQJ, was performing direct scheduled long-haul passenger flight QF1.

According to flight history found on Flightradar24.com, the wide-body jet took off from Changi Airport (SIN) in Singapore at around 4.28 pm. UTC and was scheduled to touch down at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) in the United Kingdom around 13 hours later.

However, the flight crew declared a medical emergency onboard when the aircraft was flying over Bucharest, Romania, and the plane was rerouted to Athens International Airport (ATH) for landing. It was later revealed that a passenger had become critically unwell during the flight.

Flight history indicated that VH-OQJ landed safely at LHR at around 5.00 am UTC.

This recent diversion involving a Qantas Airways A380 jet was the second incident of this kind to take place during the last seven days.

According to data from The Aviation Herald, another four-engine plane of the type, which had been scheduled to fly the same route between Singapore and the UK, was diverted to Azerbaijan. The 13.4-year-old aircraft, registered VH-OQH, performed an emergency landing at Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) after its pilots noticed intermittent indications of cargo smoke mid-flight.