Thick fog has closed in on Brisbane, forcing an Emirates Airbus A380 to divert to Sydney.
Flight EK434 from Dubai was due to land at Brisbane Airport at 20:25 UTC on 20 September.
The superjumbo never reached the Queensland capital and is recorded as diverted to Sydney.
Brisbane Fog Cuts Visibility to 100 Metres
The latest METAR for Brisbane, issued at 20:30 UTC (06:30 local time on 21 September), reads: YBBN 202030Z 23005KT 0100 R01L/0325N R01R/0350N FG OVC001 16/16 Q1021.
In plain English, the wind is light at 5 knots from 230 degrees, and visibility is just 100 metres.
Runway visual range is 325 metres on runway 01L and 350 metres on 01R. Fog is reported with an overcast layer at only 100 feet.
The temperature and dew point are both 16°C, meaning the air is fully saturated, and the QNH is 1021 hPa.
Near-calm winds and zero temperature spread are ideal conditions for fog to persist.
Those conditions are extremely challenging for any arriving aircraft, particularly a widebody.
The Emirates A380 Involved
The aircraft operating EK434 was A6-EVF, an Airbus A380-842 with manufacturer serial number 252.
Built in Toulouse and first flown on 11 July 2018 as F-WWSY, it was delivered to Emirates on 7 December 2018.
It is now 8.2 years old and remains active.
Four Rolls-Royce Trent 972-84 engines power the airframe.
Its history includes a spell in storage at Dubai World Central (DWC) from 24 March to 6 July 2020, and it returned to service on 16 July 2020.
A6-EVF was originally configured with 14 First, 76 Business and 426 Economy seats.
In June 2023 it was reconfigured to 14 First, 76 Business, 56 Premium Economy and 338 Economy.
EK434’s Diversion to Sydney
Flight data shows EK434 left Dubai at 07:31 UTC, around 56 minutes behind its 06:35 UTC schedule.
The planned flight time was roughly 13 hours 50 minutes.
Rather than continuing to Brisbane, the aircraft was diverted to Sydney.
Neither the flight data nor the METAR states the reason for the diversion.
However, Brisbane was reporting 100 metres of visibility just five minutes after the scheduled arrival time.
That makes fog the obvious factor.
What It Means for Brisbane Passengers
A diversion is never welcome after almost 14 hours in the air, but it is a routine safety decision when weather at the destination is unsuitable.
Passengers will now depend on Emirates for onward arrangements to Brisbane.
We will update this story if more details emerge.
For now, the fog is a reminder of how quickly conditions can change, even for the world’s largest passenger aircraft.
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