- The airline did not inform the Indonesian controllers that they had changed the aircraft model.

Stock image of a plane in flight.

A confusion forces a plane traveling between Australia and Bali to turn around

A flight of the Australian low-cost airline Jetstar bound for the Indonesian island of Bali had to turn around on Wednesday mid-flight and return to Melbourne (Australia) due to the confusion created by not having previously reported the change in aircraft model to Indonesian drivers.

In a statement, the airline explained that they changed their usual plane, an Airbus A321, for a Boeing 787 because it had more capacity to take tourists to Bali on vacation, but "due to an internal communication failure," they did not inform Indonesia.

"As soon as we realized it, the flight returned to Melbourne, and we accommodated the passengers on another flight later," the airline said.

They don't know how it happened

It is not clear if the plane turned around when Indonesian controllers denied it permission to land in Bali or if they returned earlier to Melbourne in southeast Australia.

"We have started to review how the communication failure occurred to prevent it from happening again," said Jetstar, which compensated affected travelers with food vouchers, hotel rooms, and redeemable flight coupons of 200 Australian dollars (127 euros).