by the way, Rockhampton is 6400 feet. And I am not aware of a 747 ever diverting there before. I would have expected SYD would be a more favourable diversion and then they cold just get the pax to BNE on domestic services.
Perhaps because the flight was not so full, it was a better idea to go to ROK and stop QF from having to pay $$$ SYD landing charges
But it seems almost crazy that QF 20 would go Manila-Sydney-Brisbane-Sydney. Surely it could have gone via DRW or CNS... Just seems like a waste of time and fuel to go via YSSY and then return not long after.
But we'll probably never know why..