Amazing how QF's luck keeps holding. Old Hudson Fysh must be up there in that great aircrew bar in the sky, just keeping it all together. If that piece of flying metal, had not hit the fuel pump, but instead entered the tank, thats how close they were to "all over red rover". And right now this country and the families of lost ones would be in mourning. Saved by a fuel pump, and a crew with airmanship, who relied on and trusted each other. There, but for the grace of God (whoever He is to you.)
Yes, QANTAS was lucky in that the debris didn't hole the fuel tank but the rest of the luck was manufactured. Manufactured by investment in excellent training which has been paid back time and time again by their flight crews.
As far as I am aware the only time this has not happened is when the flight crew was given a s**t sandwich by way of SOPs' in Bangkok. I am referring to mainline here and not the assorted sundry hangers-on. There may have been other occasions but I cannot recall them now.
The lesson for the bean counters is that investing in top maintenance and crew training is a no-brainer. It will repay its value over and over again. As has been said before, if you think training is expensive just try having a crash or even an incident.
Absolutely no way that QANTAS would be self insured. It is possible, but improbable, that they would self insure Personal Accident to employees, baggage claims and/or Loss of Licence insurance but even this is most likely covered in the Australian domestic market.
QANTAS hulls, liabilities and third party cover will be underwritten and re-insured on the world wide insurance market, as is usually the case with any airline of a reasonable size.
Absolutely no way that QANTAS would be self insured. It is possible, but improbable, that they would self insure Personal Accident to employees, baggage claims and/or Loss of Licence insurance but even this is most likely covered in the Australian domestic market.
Actually they are self insured in the above areas. That is why they introduced the 'Be Safe' program, it is used within the whole group including Boston Bruce's love child Latestar. It is a cheaper option. However I am uncertain as to what extent 'self insurance' reaches in the instance of a hull loss or something like the Dugong occurence in Singapore, but certainly eveything else is covered by self insurance.
Who knows, maybe 'da little fella' also has his monthly bonus and shareholder options insured also ??
Yes, QANTAS was lucky in that the debris didn't hole the fuel tank
So how did all that fuel escape from the wing out those large holes? And then after landing make a large puddle on the ground? I've said it elsewhere but they were incredibly lucky to not have the fuel catch on fire as they had all the requirements for combustion right there.
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Ohh..jet fuel doesn't ignite that well..you try and get it to burn at minus 15 or 20 degrees..its quite good at putting out fires.
I was a refueller once before you all start and I did a rescue fire course!
(it burns ferociously once it gets up to its flash point though..don't muck around if your wing ever gets started just hang everything out and max rate to any flat ground or water IMHO)
And yes I know jet fuel is hard to ignite, but it seemed to do that rather well with the fatal Concorde flight.
Correct. Although there were differences such as ground and air temperature, the location of the punctures, wing/engine aerodynamics etc. Nonetheless a gaping hole pis#sing out fuel is never a good situation. Sadly for Concorde ALL the holes in the swiss cheese lined up that day. As for Qantas they were saved by the omission of a few holes in the swiss cheese.
However I am uncertain as to what extent 'self insurance' reaches in the instance of a hull loss or something like the Dugong occurence in Singapore, but certainly eveything else is covered by self insurance.
For QANTAS to elect to self insure Hulls, Passenger Legal Liability, War Cover and Third Party Liability they would need a war chest that was measured in billions, several billions in fact and the third party element would have to be visible before they can overfly or fly into various foreign territories or ports. Worst case scenario, a nearly full A380, ($250+Million?) crashes into the CBD of a major city, (Third party exposure in the order of billions) and all pax die, despite what it says on the ticket, allow about $1Million per seat, after court cases, much, much more in the USA and if QF went into the insurance market and said they would self insure hulls but wanted market cover for pax legal liability and third party they would be politely told to go elsewhere.
Unless they have been very clever at hiding it, I don't think QF have that kind of money.
I went back and checked a source and it was a fuel tank that was punctured. However, the fuel transfer lines were also damaged preventing the crew from addressing the imbalance that was developing.
Fuel system transfer galleries/manifolds are located inside the wing tanks, ergo for debris to have damaged same it must have breached the wing leading to a rather large leak.
There was a pax on the upper deck watching flame shoot out the holes in the top of the wing for a few minutes. There are photos of the wing inside and out with a black residue over the green in places.
I reckon if they look into this, which I am sure they will the next report might be even more scary.
Sorry.
B707 sold to Kiwis
