After a grueling wait far from home, passengers on flight QF64 from Johannesburg to Sydney have finally returned to Australia. Their return comes after a technical incident that grounded their Airbus A380 for nearly three days on the South African tarmac.
The flight was scheduled to depart from OR Tambo International Airport on Monday evening for a twelve-hour journey. Shortly after leaving the gate, the aircraft had to turn back: a technical problem affecting the nose landing gear was detected, preventing departure. The repair proved more complex than anticipated, requiring the airline to import spare parts.
Left to their own devices, many passengers had to arrange their own accommodation while awaiting a solution.
Faced with the impossibility of quickly repairing the aircraft, Qantas eventually chartered a second A380 to repatriate the passengers. This replacement flight landed in Sydney late Thursday afternoon, ending approximately fifty hours of waiting for some travelers.
Indeed, this is not the first time the Sydney-Johannesburg route has caused problems for the airline. On September 30, 2025, an A380 operating this same route had to turn back mid-flight, after more than four hours of travel over the Indian Ocean, due to a satellite communications failure. The aircraft then returned to Sydney without incident, but forced the approximately 400 passengers to depart again the following day.