"Australian aviation authorities have announced a special review of airline Qantas, after three safety scares in little more than a week. A Qantas 767 was forced to return to Sydney on Saturday after a fluid leak. It followed another plane's emergency landing in Manila caused by a hole in its side, and a problem with a landing gear cover on a domestic flight. Officials said they had no evidence of falling safety standards, but added it was "prudent" to take a closer look. "Clearly, there's been a number of incidents recently and it's important that we go in and double check and make sure that all the standards are being maintained," a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) said."
How much of a mandate CASA have in reality?? Have they knowledge a specific series of quality failings that they are going after or is it a paperwork exercise?
Last edited by glad rag : 3rd August 2008 at 12:03.
Knee jerk I think, apart from the major problem we are all fully aware of I would say the other problems are, in my view "STD OPERATING INCIDENTS" that every airline goes through. I would say its more of a problem for the PR team to handle as the eyes are looking at Qantas hence, this knee jerk reaction and a "we must seem to be doing something" scenario occuring. Its clear from the amount of threads on PPRuNe about S O P that involve Qantas, if it involved any other airline it would be in jet blast. Its sunday guys lets have a Qantas free thread day.......
Qantas flight attendants want assurances from management that the Australian carrier's planes are safe after a third mid-air incident in two weeks, a union official said Sunday.
Attendants are concerned about media reports about maintenance practices at Qantas and do not have the specialised knowledge to assess the incidents, said Steven Reed, president of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia.
"We want some assurances from the company that these are isolated incidents," Reed said. "We need to meet with the company at a senior level to have these assurances."
Getting slightly less publicity is the fact that pilot unions have requested the same thing. Worthy of note is the fact that leaders of BOTH groups have said it is a routine enquiry and should not be seen as anything more than that.
Agree with previous comments. This is more an exercise to improve the slightly tarnished image of Qantas. The media will soon be looking elsewhere for their next bit of scintillating gossip.
I'd have thought that the Quantas "scrutiny" would also happen in the UK if BA/EZY had a string of issues. What happens is that folk who had not previously reported a concern decide to report their concerns, and a spike of reports hit whoever the regulator is...............who then has to investigate, and be seen to investigate.
From American CNN coverage: Australia's aviation agency launched a review of Qantas Airways' safety standards Sunday after a Manila-bound jetliner spraying hydraulic fuel made the airline's third high-profile emergency landing in eight days.
I am ever so glad to have such capable journalistic professionals keeping me well informed about these weighty matters. I don't know how I would get along without them.
I travelled last week 6 times with QF and was booked on QF19 on Saturday to Manila but missed the flight because my connection from BNE was late due to other issues. Let me say clearly its an airline in Melt Down. Of my six flights all departed late between 1 and 3 hours. No IFE working on my two Intercontinental segments, not important in itself but indicative. The inspection is a good thing before they kill someone. Oh and they lost my bags too....
No IFE working on my two Intercontinental segments, not important in itself but indicative.
Not that IFE problems are uncommon on any aircraft, but bad choice of system and airlines wanting all the bells and whistles (intensive customisation) on their particular aircraft, makes things worse.
When you basically have a personal computer under each seat group (1~3 seats), something, statistically, has to break down (how many times has your home computer needed a reboot?). Also, IFE system manufacturers still haven't quite grasped the fact that vibration, huge variations in temperature and spilled coffee are normal on all aircraft.
I hear that one customer was so upset that the IFE box under the seat in front of him was reducing his legroom, he repeatedly kicked it.
IFE systems are obviously not significant to the operation of the plane, but they are very customer facing. Sitting on a ten hour flight without one can be a bit of a bore, and it's easy for SLF to think if they can't get a DVD working, which they have sitting in their front room, what chance does the rest of the planes maintenance have?
I would think it could be significant when picking your next carrier.
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