Key Points
- Two flights - one outbound from Australia and another inbound - have made unexpected landings.
- A Qatar Airways flight headed to Doha spent New Years Eve circling Brisbane.
- Passengers bound for Sydney ended up spending 12 hours on a remote Pacific island.
Passengers on board two flights experienced unexpected beginnings to the new year due to issues with the planes they were travelling on.
A Doha-bound flight from Brisbane and a Sydney-bound flight from Los Angeles both ended sooner than expected with emergency landings.
Those originally headed to Doha rung in the new year as their plane turned back and circled Brisbane.
Passengers on the flight from the United States spent time on a remote Pacific Island and managed to miss the countdown on both sides of the International Date Line.
Qatar Airways flight QR899 usually takes about 12-and-a-half hours to get to Doha, but after departing at 10.55pm AEST, it touched back down in Brisbane again less than two hours after take off.
The flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed the aeroplane did not get beyond Queensland. Source: SBS News
The airline said hotel accommodation is being provided for passengers as arrangements are made for the journey to resume "at the earliest opportunity".
Engine troubles force landing at Pago Pago International Airport
Also experiencing plane troubles were passengers on board United Airlines flight UA839.
They left Los Angeles on Thursday night and would have been expecting to arrive in Sydney on Friday morning with a day to spare before New Years Eve celebrations.
A United Airlines spokeswoman told SBS News the flight was diverted to address a mechanical issue.
It's understood a possible oil leak on the aircraft's engine was identified sometime after take off.
More than 10 hours into what was scheduled to be an almost 15-hour flight, the plane landed in Pago Pago, in in the middle of the Pacific.
It's understood the unexpected arrivals were welcomed by locals, with some getting a tour of the island and enjoying island life for a short time while awaiting a replacement aircraft to take them on to Sydney.
Crew and passengers were on the island for about 12 hours.
Americans Caitlin Wood and Tom McComas were on the flight on the way to visit friends in Australia.
They described the whole experience as "an adventure" and said the airline crew handled the situation really professionally and the people of Pago Pago were very accommodating.
"We were told the runway wasn’t built to accommodate the type of aircraft we were in, but if they hadn’t said anything we wouldn’t have known any different," Ms Wood said.
"The airport is so small - they didn’t have any staff at immigration to process us, so waited about an hour and then went through," she said.
They now have an extra stamp in their passport that they had not expected to have.
Caitlin Wood and Tom McComas now have an extra stamp in their passports after the unexpected detour. Source: Supplied
"They had no idea we were coming but still they provided such great hospitality," she said.
After settling in their accommodation, the couple joined some of their fellow passengers to explore the island, they had a driver who took them to a small mall to buy fresh clothes, went to a beach for a swim, and then enjoyed some drinks on the beach.
The pair said other than passengers from their flight, they did not see any other tourists on the island.
They joked that "United stole our New Years Eve".
As American Samoa is just east of the International Date Line and the replacement flight left on 31 December, the plane would have crossed into New Years Day, skipping the countdown to midnight.
Passengers arrived in Sydney on a replacement flight at 7am AEDT on 1 January 2023.
