Qatar Airways declares emergency on China flight

Qatar Airways declared emergency on a flight to Shanghai’s Pudong Airport this month, due to fuel levels on its Boeing 777-300 being low, it has been reported.

The national carrier was performing flight QR-888 from Doha on 13 August 2011 when the incident occurred, according to Aviation Herald.

Due to weather conditions, the aircraft needed to enter a holding around 14:40L and it was subsequently diverted to Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport after fuel levels become low.

However, a Juneyao Airlines flight was approaching the airport at the same time and crew therefore received an Air Traffic Control instruction to accommodate the Qatar Airways emergency by aborting their approach.

The instructions were apparently refused and Juneyao Airlines continued their approach for a safe landing, forcing Qatar Airways to delay its own landing.

Aviation Herald reports that the Middle Eastern airline was then able to land and later continued to Pudong, reaching with a total delay of nine hours.

China’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAC) has launched an investigation and pledged: “Verified violations will be severely dealt with according to law.”