Airliner Guides ‘Blind’ Qantas Flight

Two airliners played Follow the Leader over the Pacific Ocean after a Qantas jet lost its weather radar but airline officials said passengers weren’t in danger.

Britain’s Telegraph said Wednesday that the crew of a Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Sydney found itself without its weather radar a few hours into the flight last week and had to rely on an Air New Zealand jet flying ahead of it on the same route to keep pilots informed about conditions.

The Qantas Boeing 747 with 284 passengers landed in Auckland, which was the destination of the Air New Zealand flight, and made it to Sydney about four hours late. Qantas said there was no imminent danger during the 12-hour journey.

“None at all,” said an unidentified spokeswoman. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have operated the flight” and it would have returned to Los Angeles.