Qantas’ Messy A380 Flight

Qantas’ recently returned Airbus A380 from long-term storage was involved in a mishap on its first flight back into service.

The Airbus A380 registered as VH-OQC and named “Puul McGinness” operated flight QF11 with service between Sydney (SYD) and Los Angeles (LAX) on 7 December 2025; however, its journey would be anything but smooth.

During this return flight, the airline found a slat on the left wing damaged after landing in Los Angeles on Sunday local time, and the plane was subsequently grounded.

As part of the grounding, the airline needed to get to the bottom of what caused the slat damage and have engineering teams replace the slat so the aircraft could be cleared to return not only to operations but also to Australia.

Much of this incident came to light thanks to Lynn Gilmartin, a popular Australian figure, who said that TVs weren’t working on the plane, that the lights weren’t on in most cabins, and that seats weren’t reclining, and claimed that the toilets were overflowing as well.

Those electrical woes can be directly attributed to an unrelated electrical system malfunction aboard the aircraft, unrelated to the slat damage identified.

As a result of the electrical woes, however, entertainment screens were not working, and lighting was not configured as it should’ve been, resulting in a worst-case scenario for the Australian flag-carrier, an aircraft returning to service after so long on the ground.

The Return Of The Qantas A380

For Qantas, the multiple problems identified across this A380 flight come just a matter of days after the aircraft returned from long-term storage; this is its first flight as part of thorough reactivation efforts into the business.

VH-OQC was part of the mass grounding of the superjumbo during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as demand dropped significantly and the Australian flag carrier entered business preservation mode.

However, while Airbus A380s have slowly returned to service over recent years, this process has been nothing but challenging for the flag carrier, and this reactivation comes after more than half a decade spent on the ground.

While there has been much excitement about this unit, the final one to return from long-term storage, the airline hasn’t been afraid to highlight, on several occasions, the sheer challenges of reactivating an aircraft of this size after so long spent inactive.

Qantas has confirmed that teams of engineers right around the globe completed more than 100,000 hours of work to prepare this aircraft to fly once again, including heavy maintenance checks and specific replacements to key parts to ensure it was fit to fly upon its return.

Therefore, while just a week ago the return was being celebrated, its service return was anything but smooth and can highlight just how strenuous it is for a business to reactivate the world’s largest passenger plane.