Airlines find many reasons for explaining away delays: “Late arrival of the incoming aircraft” is a popular one.
“Weather conditions” is another. Or “technical issues”, perhaps.
Now Qantas has another, novel explanation for flight delays: “Falling space junk”.
The Australian carrier has had to delay flights between Johannesburg and Sydney because of falling junk from Elon Musk’s Space X rockets.
The Qantas flights cross a remote section of the southern Indian Ocean where the US launch company discards its re-entering rockets. Quite legitimately.
Qantas says when it hears of the exact timing and positioning of junk drops it often has no option but to delay flights to ensure safety.
“Over the past few weeks we‘ve had to delay several flights between Johannesburg and Sydney due to advice received from the US Government regarding the re-entry of SpaceX rockets over an extensive area of the Southern Indian Ocean,” Qantas said.