I have seen the damage and the work required to fix this A/C and return it to service. To put it mildly, this situation is disgraceful.
I expect the A/C to lose 3+ days in downtime. All due to a supposed cost saving mentality that has actually wasted money.
A few points:
* Someone, somewhere must be held accountable. This incident and several similar incidents has cost QF a major amount of $, not to mention the cost to its reputation.
* The above people responsible ( DC, MB etc ) will not be held to account - Management is simply a "Boys club" that looks after their own.
* The above management will hold QF engineers responsible for not adequately supervising the lay-up in Malaysia.
*Mel heavy is supposedly the southern Hemispheres "Centre of excellence"
It is so good that management has decided to out source its 737s to JH, Malaysia and Forstaff
* Mel heavy has approx 30% less staff than it had a year ago - yet it has more managers.
* I am sick of hearing Company spin. DC - "we are training 1000 apprentices." Rubbish! This is counting 3rd and 4th years. The previous 2 years, they didnt employ any, and this year they only employed a token amount. Even the Apprentice school has been closed down and outsourcedto a local TAFE! (If you need a conspiracy theory, check out who sits on the TAFE board )
Who will be around in Heavy Maint in 10 years time?
* QF will be thankful the Olympics are in full swing - this will take them off the front pages.
* A damning ATSB report will soon be released that, in theory, will put even more heat on QF management. It will be interesting to see the spin
it generates.
* Qantas' engineering reputation will probably never recover.