In a bewildering turn of events, a Qantas Airlines flight destined for Paris left Perth, Australia, on Monday evening and returned to the same city the following morning after an exhausting 15 hours in the skies. The flight, numbered QF33, was among several affected as airspace in the region was temporarily closed due to escalating tensions following attacks involving the United States, Israel, and Iran.
The aircraft was already cruising over the Arabian Sea, near the southwestern coast of India, when the decision was made to turn back, as revealed by FlightAware, a service that tracks aviation data. Originally set for a journey exceeding 16 hours, the flight departed from Perth Airport at 7:51 PM local time and landed back in Perth at 11:04 AM on Tuesday.
Qantas Airlines attributed the flight's return to “additional airspace closures and congestion through the Middle East.” Another flight by the airline, which had also departed Perth that Monday, was diverted on its way to London and ended up landing in Singapore instead.
The disruptions followed Iran's missile strike on Al Udeid Air Base, an American facility located in Qatar, a retaliation for U.S. attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. The ongoing conflict has led to heightened air traffic safety measures and substantial alterations in flight paths across the region.
