...they also must have sources at the airport who don't work for the airline who help them out.
Why do you assume they don't work for the airline? Maybe they do work for Qantas and they're disillusioned and/or seditious? I've never worked for QF, but working at an airport, talking to Qantas staff and reading what's said on PPRuNe tells me that Qantas has a pretty browned off, under-appreciated workforce across all its operational departments.
It's only a small step from being under-appreciated to sending information to the media, either for aspirational reasons (to fix the problem) or just to be a prick and make life tough for the despised managment drones. On a few occasions the federal government has learned this the hard way.
Hypothetical question with no pre-conceived assumptions...How many of these 'stories' are coming from within Qantas itself? Say It Ain't So
I don't wish to pick on QANTAS
PR specifically but they seem to be the most prolific at this.
A company's media coverage is usually only as good as its
PR staff. Just how good are they at Qantas? As a number of you have said, one of the problems appears to be the airline's handling of potentially damaging stories, rather than the actual incidents.
If the
PR team took on a couple of well presented, co-operative LAMEs (possibly a big ask
) that could answer stupid media questions with matter-of-fact knowledge and courtesy, they would probably dowse a lot of this crap before it hit the headlines.
Whenever questioned about anything even remotely non routine, Qantas seems to have an oversupply of
PR poppets and a lack of simple, plausible explanations. We industry types all understand the issues behind minor incidents and delays, but the average person (even if they are intelligent and well educated) usually has a basic lack of knowledge about what keeps aircraft in the air and is also a bit scared of flying. The modern media exists to either terrify, arouse or disgust you (facts are so 1960s
) so they are happy to play on the public's lack of knowledge and paranoia.