Hamilton Island Bound Virgin Australia Flight Diverts to Mackay Airport with Engine Problems

Channel 7 personality Natalie Barr has told attendees at a function that she was on board a Virgin Australia flight bound for Hamilton Island Airport from Sydney on Saturday 19 March which was forced to divert to Mackay Airport due to "engine problems".

Some research shows that on Saturday 19 March, Virgin Boeing B737-800 VH-VUX was operating the morning VOZ1281 flight from Sydney to Hamilton Island and that it did indeed divert and land at Mackay Airport.  It appears that while descent it levelled out at 10000 feet and proceeded to overfly Hamo before turning South and landing at Mackay shortly after.

It appears that VH-VUX was on the ground at Mackay for around an hour before departing and continuing to Hamo.

The outbound VOZ1280 flight looked to operate as per normal - albeit a little late.

File photo taken by Michael Fleetwood  ©