After 674 days in storage at LAX, a second Qantas Airbus A380 has returned to Australia ahead of a projected return to service.
VH-OQD took off from LAX shortly before 9 p.m. local time on Saturday, January 8th, and flew for 14 hours and 18 minutes before landing at Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport at 6:11 a.m. on Monday, January 10th.
It’s the first time OQD has landed on Australian soil since its last passenger flight to London on 7 March 2020, when it was transferred from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi for maintenance.
Twitter user @speedbird020 captured this livefeed of VH-OQD taking off from LAX, on its way home to Australia.
Just finished watching LAX plane spotting live on YouTube & caught QF6032 VH-OQD an A380 heading home to Sydney. @Keg767 @AA380fanclub #LAFlights #LAX #Qantas #A380 pic.twitter.com/st389bmmfh
— Alex 🇭🇲 (@speedbird020) January 9, 2022
Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, VH-OQD was transferred from Abu Dhabi to LAX on July 25, 2020, where she remained until Saturday.
VH-OQD, named after one of Qantas’ founders Fergus McMaster, was one of only two A380s kept at Qantas’ purpose-built A380 hangar at Los Angeles International Airport, with VH-OQB, Hudson Fysh, the first QF A380 to be returned to service.
