Perth: Passengers were making live tweets as Qantas Flight QF2 flying from Dubai to Sydney was diverted to Perth early on Monday due to a fault in its air conditioning system.

The plane descended to 3,000 metres and the captain requested a “priority landing” at the airport. The incident started about 3am over the Indian Ocean, around 700km northwest of Perth.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the A380 captain made the request when the aircraft experienced a loss of air conditioning about an hour outside of the West Australian capital.

“It was a fault with the air conditioning so the engineers are having a look at that now,” a Qantas spokesman told agencies.

Passenger Nigel Richardson live-tweeted his emergency landing experience after the A380superjumbo plane reportedly dropped from 39,000 feet to 9,000 feet in minutes.

 

Ruchardson kept his Twitter followers updated with the situation and said there was "full show down of air conditioning system".

"Full shut down of air conditioning system that keeps plane pressurised at altitude was the problem," he clarified.

He said despite the oxygen masks not dropping the incident ‘seemed to scare the crews as much as us’.

Richardson reported those on board were told: ‘Cabin crew this is an emergency descent. The aircraft is in full control’.

Live tweeting the terrifying experience, the frequent flyer joked: ‘Look on the bright side. I've never been to Perth before. Unplanned stopover. How long we are here for – TBD.’

 


A flyer, Courtney Atkinson, tweeted about the dramatic landing, and said it was an 'interesting start to the day' after the plane dropped in just "four minutes".