Qantas passengers stuck in L.A.

With the airline's A380 fleet grounded for several days because of engine problems, the L.A. experience appears to be getting a little old for several hundred passengers en route to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. "Dazed and confused, tired and in unwashed clothes, we all clutch a special bright-yellow Qantas voucher that gives us three meals a day and a warm bed," one of them writes. There were reports this morning that the engine problem was close to being resolved, but no word on when the remaining passengers will be on their way. From The Day:

At the Westin, Qantas passengers held informal gatherings to swap information about flight times, meals and news from home. We are usually met by Qantas ground staff; sometimes they have an update for us, often they don't. The word from our occasional meetings is that flights are going to Sydney, while Melbourne seems to be a bridge too far. We are told we will be called when our flights are ready to go, and in the meantime we should enjoy LA and do some touring. Some people who have been stuck in LA since Wednesday finally got their flight back to Australia last night and today.