Every now and then PPRUNE throws up a new wunderkid with all the answers.
reaux is today's wunderkid. We should all bask in his reflected glory. I wonder if he's aircraft's brother?
QF have my support and respect. They demand it with their "zero accident" history (there'd have to be a thread here on QF1!), and long running history.
What utter crap. QF don't demand anything. Like DJ and J*, QF is a bunch of blokes and blokettes working hard to avoid stuffing up. Most times that works, sometimes it doesn't- like not getting into reverse thrust during an RTO for any number of reasons.
I am wondering however, how can they get themselves into messes like such? What's the missing piece to the puzzle as to why wasps can nest in pitot tubes, and generators can fail on 747's?
It's called aviation and any endeavour on this planet that involves humans will have it's stuff ups. Space Shuttle's Challenger and Columbia are two prime examples. Generators didn't 'fail', they were working perfectly. Not a skerrick of work was done on the generators. The Generator control units on the other hand were fine until water got into them. Why does this happen? Watch any episode of aircraft investigation and see how completely unrelated issues and occasional minor mistakes result in bad things happening. Then come back and perhaps you may have a better idea.
If
VB have their indescretions, why aren't they released into the media the way QF and JQ incidents are?
Perhaps you hear more about QF incidents simply because they have more of them. That would make sense given that their fleet is about three or four times the size of Virgin's.
I assume
VB have shown a good record of safety to CASA, and hence the dispensation of the overhead life rafts.
Sometimes it's more advisable to just say 'I don't know' and be thought ignorant than to hit the 'submit' button and remove all doubt. Remember the old saying about what happens when you assume? In this case though the only person looking like an ass is you.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no Qantas apologist (goodness knows we have a lot of issues to work through at the moment) but if you're going to lob into a professional pilots forum and expect to contribute in a meaningful way then you need to arrive with more than 'DJ must be great because they get lots of dispensations and you never hear about them in the press except when they're talking about cheap airfares or hot hosties'.
