15-hour flight to nowhere: Qantas jet turns back amid airspace closure

Passengers aboard a Paris-bound Qantas Airways Ltd. flight spent more than 15 hours in the air only to find themselves back where they started from in Australia after an Iranian missile attack shut down swathes of Middle East airspace.

The Boeing Co. 787 jet departed Perth for the usual 17-hour haul to Paris at 7.35pm local time Monday. It made it as far as the south-west fringes of Indian airspace when the airline was told about the missile attack, forcing it to turn around.

The plane landed safely back in the Western Australian capital around 11am Tuesday.

Another Qantas flight from Perth bound for London Heathrow was also affected and diverted to Singapore, Qantas said in a statement.

Passengers on both flights will be accommodated overnight. The diversions will also affect the return flights from London and Paris, and Qantas said it is working through options for affected passengers.

The airline said it would continue to monitor airspace availability and utilise a number of flight paths for flights to Europe factoring in weather and the security situation.

Qantas's non-stop European flights from Perth routinely fly over the Middle East region, and at times have been forced to take longer detours to skirt airspace restrictions or stop in Singapore to refuel.