QF6013 Sydney to LA returning

[Foxxster]

Just flew overhead. A380 Sydney to LA. Took off, just done a loop what seems to be a few hundred km out to sea and returned to Sydney.

Interesting to see what the issue was. Doesn’t happen often.

actually that’s an odd flight number. Is is mislabeled and simply a scheduled test flight.

there is a Qantas Sydney to LA scheduled for a 21.40 departure. Which was two minutes ago. But nothing prior. But that is qf11

[Capt Fathom]

There was no issue. The flight plan was SYD - SYD. Test flight, training, who knows?
Several of these flights today.

[Foxxster]

There was no issue. The flight plan was SYD - SYD. Test flight, training, who knows?
Several of these flights today.

ah ok thanks. Probably testing it’s still water proof..

[regional_flyer]

Just flew overhead. A380 Sydney to LA. Took off, just done a loop what seems to be a few hundred km out to sea and returned to Sydney.

Interesting to see what the issue was. Doesn’t happen often.

actually that’s an odd flight number. Is is mislabeled and simply a scheduled test flight.

there is a Qantas Sydney to LA scheduled for a 21.40 departure. Which was two minutes ago. But nothing prior. But that is qf11

You were using Flightradar24? It has a glitch where it assumes the re-use of a flight number is for a specific route, so test/ferry flights will tend to appear as whatever the last use of that flight number was. I'd wager that the last time QF6013 was used it was indeed on SYD-LAX.

EDIT: FlightAware confirms this, previous QF6013 was SYD-LAX on 27/02.

[RampDog]

Just flew overhead. A380 Sydney to LA. Took off, just done a loop what seems to be a few hundred km out to sea and returned to Sydney.

Interesting to see what the issue was. Doesn’t happen often.

actually that’s an odd flight number. Is is mislabeled and simply a scheduled test flight.

there is a Qantas Sydney to LA scheduled for a 21.40 departure. Which was two minutes ago. But nothing prior. But that is qf11

QF operated several crew training/maintenance check flights on Thursday 3/3.
Not at all unusual as they did exactly the same with VH-OQB previously, and definitely only doing circuits.
Those QF60** flight numbers have even before Covid, designated either ferry, repositioning or training flights.
Hope that helps explain any randomness :-)