Today interviews a passenger that was on board the Qantas Flight QF-2 from Dubai when it made an emergency landing in Perth. Courtesy: Channel Nine/Today.

Today interviews a passenger that was on board the Qantas Flight QF-2 from Dubai when it made an emergency landing in Perth. Courtesy: Channel Nine/Today.

QANTAS boss Alan Joyce has insisted the airline remains one of the most reliable in the world despite three aircraft having to turn back yesterday due to technical problems.

Two A380s and a Boeing 737 were forced to make unscheduled landings in Perth and Sydney, disrupting the flights of around 1000 passengers.

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A variety of issues were blamed including an air conditioning fail, strong fumes in the cabin, and a technical fault that knocked out the toilets and in flight entertainment on one of the A380s.

Engineers are still going over the aircraft to ensure their airworthiness and passengers have been placed on other flights to reach their destinations.

Speaking at the Qantas heavy maintenance facility in Brisbane today, Mr Joyce played down the string of problems which took the shine off his half year return to profit announcement.

“We are very confident in Qantas’s reliability,” said Mr Joyce.

“There are turn backs that happen, thousands and thousands of them every year around the globe, it’s part of aviation.

“The reality is the amount of turn backs that happen on Qantas are a lot less than the industry average.”

Mr Joyce did acknowledge the inconvenience caused to hundreds of passengers, some of whom spent seven hours in the air, only to end up where they started.

“We have disrupted a lot of customers, we understand that, and we do apologise for the disruptions that have been caused but our teams have been working extremely hard on making sure we minimise that,” Mr Joyce said.

“I think Qantas is one of the best airlines in the world at managing the disruption to our customers and ensuring it’s minimised when it does occur.”

He rejected any suggestion that offshoring maintenance for some of the Qantas fleet had contributed to the spate of technical issues that occurred yesterday.

Maintenance facilities have been the focus of the airline’s “transformation program” to date — with hundreds of workers made redundant from closures in Melbourne and Avalon.

Mr Joyce said the Brisbane facility was the “only heavy maintenance facility run by any major carrier in Australia”.

“All the international airlines that fly in here by their nature do their maintenance offshore. Our competitors do their maintenance offshore,” he said.

“It’s absolute nonsense to say there’s any difference between offshore and onshore maintenance.”

Mr Joyce also announced four direct flights a week between Brisbane and Tokyo from next year on A330 aircraft, reintroducing a service canned in 2010.

The move means Qantas will go head to head with its own budget carrier Jetstar that filled the void when the Flying Kangaroo pulled out of the route.

Trio of turnback incidents

A Qantas flight from Sydney to Dallas had to return to Sydney yesterday after the failure of non-safety-related systems on board.

The technical issues on the A380 reportedly impacted seat power, the in-flight entertainment system and toilets.

Earlier in the day Perth Airport had been the scene of two emergency landings, both involving Qantas aircraft.

An A380 with a broken air conditioning system and a strange smelling 737 both required “priority” landings in the space of 12 hours.

The 737 had just taken off from Perth for Karratha about 4pm AEDT when an unusual odour was smelt in the cabin forcing the captain to turnaround and return to the airport.

The plane landed without incident and none of the passengers on board were injured.

Qantas tweeted that there were no reports of injury.

@9NewsAUS To clarify, QF904 from Perth to Karratha made a precautionary air return due to an odour in the cabin. The flight landed normally. — Qantas (@Qantas) December 8, 2014

Qantas is investigating the source of the fumes.

The incident followed another priority landing in the early hours of the morning by a Qantas A380 carrying more than 500 passengers.

The super jumbo had suffered a loss of air conditioning which put the aircraft at risk of depressurisation.

A Qantas spokeswoman said they would work with manufacturer Airbus to find the cause of the issue and ensure other A380s were not at risk.

The first incident occurred on Qantas Flight QF2 travelling from Dubai to Sydney and was diverted to Perth when the air conditioning stopped working putting the aircraft at risk of depressurisation.

The A380 descended over 9000 metres and dumped tonnes of fuel before making a “priority landing” at Perth Airport.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the problem occurred an hour off the West Australian coast, about 3am yesterday.

"Cabin crew this is an emergency descent. The aircraft is in full control". Sort of a good news / bad news thing. #qantas #qf2 — Nigel Richardson (@NigelRichardson) December 7, 2014

Fastest descent I've ever experienced in a plane. Always interesting when you see cabin crew running too...#qantas #qf2 — Nigel Richardson (@NigelRichardson) December 7, 2014

"Non specific fault on air conditioner" caused the problem. Engineers looking into it. Feeling it may be some time... #qf2 #qantas — Nigel Richardson (@NigelRichardson) December 7, 2014

Qantas engineers were sent to inspect the aircraft which was expected to return to Sydney without passengers.

Those who were on board were put into accommodation for the night, and booked on other services.

During the flight, passenger Nigel Richardson tweeted pictures from the cabin showing all was calm.

“Full shut down of air conditioning system that keeps plane pressurised at altitude was the problem,” he said in a post. Mr Richardson praised the response of the crew saying “#qantas first officer walking through plane giving personal situation update to everyone as best he can. Full marks to crew #QF2”.

The Qantas spokeswoman said they were working closely with aircraft manufacturer Airbus to determine the cause of the problem.

The A380s have had their share of issues since coming on to the aviation scene including an engine explosion after takeoff from Singapore in November 2010.

UPDATE Qantas is confirming A380 #QF2 from Dubai to Sydney is diverting to Perth. Track: http://t.co/mzKkQjAQr1 pic.twitter.com/dHBFFNSsVx — AirLive.net (@airlivenet) December 7, 2014

Incredibly, the aircraft landed safely and no one was hurt.

Earlier this year, another A380 was forced to return to Los Angeles two hours into a flight from Melbourne when water began running down the aisles.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau Report found a cleaner’s mop loosened a connection between the water pipe and the floor, allowing 700 litres of water to escape.

Airbus and Qantas announced they would work on a permanent fix.

The double-deckers super jumbos have the capacity to carry more than 500 passengers.

In an interview with Today yesterday, a passenger on the A380 described the emergency descent as “scary’ but said he felt the pilots were in control.

“To be honest I didn’t find it that dramatic. The cabin crew and the pilots under the circumstances did really well. They gave us as much information as they could, they explained exactly why they were doing everything and diving from 40,000 feet to 10,000 probably sounds more exciting than it actually was.

“I think it was quite controlled and it was probably a little bit scary but because they gave all the information they could, I felt fairly reassured. I think under the circumstances they did quite well.”