Terrible Weather in Brisbane Brings Virgin Australia B737-800 Diversion to Rockhampton Airport Friday Night

Absolutely terrible weather in the South East corner of Queensland on Friday 1 May, with heavy rain and strong winds lashing Brisbane, along with the Sunshine and Gold Coasts.  And airline services in and out of these parts were affected, with significant delays and several diversions all day and into the night caused by the weather.

Isabella Higgins / http://www.abc.net.au/

Services into Central Queensland Airports were delayed with several flights touching down and departing Gladstone, Rockhampton and Mackay well into the night and into the very early morning on Saturday 2 May.

One interesting diversion into Rockhampton occurred on Friday evening with Virgin Australia Boeing B737-800 VH-YIQ operating the VOZ333 service from Melbourne (Tullamarine) to Brisbane landing at Rocky after being unable to land at Brisbane and experiencing a significant period of holding.

File photo taken by Dave  ©

After taking on fuel, VH-YIQ departed soon after heading back to Brisbane where it did land successfully.