Faulty airliner forced to play follow-the-leader

A jumbo jet was forced to follow another airliner across the Pacific after its weather radar failed today.

The Australian Qantas jet flew behind an Air New Zealand plane from Los Angeles while its flight crew provided information about the weather ahead.

The Qantas plane, carrying 284 passengers, had to land at Auckland instead of its scheduled destination of Sydney.

The fault is the latest in a series of high-profile malfunctions and near-misses for Australia’s flagship carrier in recent months that have drawn attention to its safety standards.

The pilot told passengers during the flight that he was “flying blind” across the ocean. One passenger said that the Air New Zealand jet came into view as it flew ahead of the Qantas jet.

The Qantas plane was “a few hours” into its 12-hour flight when it “experienced a weather radar defect,” a company spokeswoman said.

“An Air New Zealand flight ... was a short distance ahead and it provided the Qantas aircraft with information from its own radar system throughout the journey,” she said.

The Qantas jet first landed in Auckland, which was the Air New Zealand plane’s scheduled destination, she said. It arrived Sydney about four hours late.

She said the fault had never posed any danger.

“None at all. Otherwise they wouldn’t have operated the flight,” she said, indicating that the jet would have returned to California.