Flight Delay Forces All Passengers To Undergo Mandatory 14-Day Quarantine

A plane full of passengers flying in Australia was forced to undergo a 14-day quarantine after their flight was delayed. Virgin Australia flight VA469 was scheduled to depart from Perth at 1:40 p.m. last Friday (April 23) and arrive in Brisbane later that evening. Unfortunately, a mechanical issue delayed the flight by nearly six hours and they did not take off until after 7 p.m.

When they arrived in Brisbane, just after 1 a.m. Saturday morning, they were informed they would have to go to a hotel and spend the next two weeks in quarantine because of a new order that went into effect at midnight. Had their flight not been delayed, the passengers would not subject to the quarantine order.

The new order was put in place while the flight was in the air after authorities in Western Australia enacted a three-day lockdown in response to a suspected coronavirus outbreak in Perth. Health officials in Queensland, the home state of Brisbane, responded by requiring all passengers arriving from Western Australia to remain quarantined for two weeks.

Officials agreed to cover the cost of their hotel rooms because they were not notified of the rule change before the flight took off. Luckily, the passengers only spent three days in isolation after health authorities determined just three people in Perth had contracted COVID-19 and lifted the quarantine order.

Photo: Getty Images


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