Yet another reason not to fly Qantas

Man dies on 'unbearably hot' flight after plane takes off with no air-conditioning. The plane was clearly faulty and should never have taken off

PASSENGERS on a Qantas-affiliated flight are outraged after an Australian man died shortly after the air conditioning failed and temperatures soared above 35C. The Western Australia man, aged 85, passed away after suffering what was thought to be a heart attack or stroke on board the Air France/Qantas flight from Paris to Singapore last night.

Other passengers were furious the Boeing 777 departed in the first place given the fact the air conditioning wasn't working. Melbourne lawyer Ian Dunn, who was on holiday with his wife, said the pilot tried to start the plane three times in Paris. "The really awful thing was that it is quite possible that the heat on the plane when we first got on – which probably lasted about an hour and a half – may well have had some impact on this man dying," he said. "

I don't think the plane should have gone. "The plane shouldn't have been as hot as it was. "We were leaving from 11.30pm in Paris and it was about 15C outside but the temperature in the plane was over 30C when we got on. "Later in the day a guy with a thermometer recorded it as over 35C."

The deceased man was believed to be travelling with two other people.

Mr Dunn, who was sitting a few rows behind, said the first he knew of any incident was when an announcement was made asking if there was a doctor on board and several people came forward. The plane made an emergency landing in Bucharest, Romania, but the man died before or shortly after it landed.

Other passengers were left on the flight for more than five hours without air conditioning before returning to Paris, where they started the journey again 15 hours later. Mr Dunn said the pilot again struggled to start the plane. "It happened to be handled by Air France as part of its relationship with other airlines but we'd booked the bloody thing through Qantas."

Mr Dunn was supposed to be back at work today (Thursday) but instead had to spend another night in Paris, before flying home to Melbourne via Hong Kong. "They brought us back today from Bucharest to Paris, the people who are going to Sydney are now leaving on a flight that gets them as far as Singapore," he said. "There was a hell of a fuss when they were told they would be waiting for seats to become available on any Qantas flight and the flights are all full."

A Qantas spokeswoman said the customer who passed away had booked through Air France and it was unable to disclose his nationality for privacy reasons. She said there were 46 Qantas CodeShare passengers on the flight who were now on their way back home. "It's an Air France flight so it's not a Qantas operated flight," she said. "We have sold some seats on it for our customers but it's an Air France flight and an Air France aircraft."

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