No fuel dumping over Australia, thank you - Curt Lewis

Passengers left onboard Dubai-bound flight for 9 hours before being diverted

DUBAI // A Qantas aircraft carrying 410 passengers from Melbourne to Dubai was diverted to Sydney about three hours into its flight on Monday night because of an engineering issue.

Passengers were aboard for about nine hours after they were kept in a holding pattern over Sydney for six hours while the vibration on one of the aircraft's engines was monitored by the crew aboard and Qantas' operations in Sydney. As a precaution, it landed and passengers were transferred to another aircraft, according to a Qantas statement.

Plane-tracking website Airlive said the flight was in a nearly six-hour holding pattern at 27,000ft near Sydney Airport before it landed, where airport vehicles were waiting.

Passengers were then taken onto an A380 aircraft. Qantas flight QF 9 departed Sydney at 9.24am local time on Tuesday and landed safely in Dubai at 6.45am.