Qantas apologises to hundreds of passengers left stranded at US airport

Qantas has apologised to passengers after a flight delay left hundreds stranded at Dallas airport for 24 hours with many left to sleep on hard flooring. The QF8 service from Dallas Fort Worth to Sydney on Wednesday was initially delayed due to an engineering issue, according to Qantas. The issue took longer than expected to resolve and, as a result, pushed the flight’s projected arrival time in Sydney into the curfew window, meaning Qantas had to delay the flight for a second time. Furious passengers have complained that after the flight was delayed, Qantas staff did not book accommodation for all of the roughly 300 passengers, and that they were left to book accommodation themselves. Shortly after 3.30pm Sydney time on Thursday, a Qantas spokesperson said the flight had taken off – about 23 hours after its scheduled departure. “We know that this is a difficult situation for our customers whose plans have been disrupted, and we apologise for the inconvenience,” he told the Guardian. “Our team at Dallas Fort Worth airport provided customers with assistance after the initial delay and are helping customers ahead of the delayed departure,” the spokesperson said.<br/>