LOS ANGELES--Water flowed down the aisles and rained down on
passengers of a double-decker Qantas Airways flight bound for
Australia after a leak that forced the plane to return to Los
Angeles late Tuesday, airline officials and passengers on the
flight said.
The flight to Melbourne landed safely again at Los Angeles
International Airport about an hour after takeoff, the company said
in a statement.
Qantas said there were no safety concerns with the leak and that
the captain decided to turn the Airbus A380 around in the interest
of passenger comfort.
Water ran down stairs in the cabin and dripped onto passengers
seated in the lower deck. Some people were moved to dryer areas of
the plane.
"You couldn't keep going like that for 15 hours," passenger Ken
Cross told KABC-TV.
Passengers were put up in a hotel as other flight arrangements
were made.
The 11:40 p.m. flight was carrying about 400 passengers, LAX
spokeswoman Amanda Parsons told the Associated Press.
Qantas said the plane's crew did all it could to help customers
and that the issue with the plane was being addressed by its
engineers.
The company said it was working to determine the cause of the
leak.
The A380 is a four-engine jet with two decks of passenger
seating. The planes first flew to the U.S. in 2007.
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