Nightowl and oldhasbeen,
If Ansett's maintenance was soooo good then why has most of the logbooks for the aircraft parked at Mel mysteriously disappeared.
As for the Nagoya incident, QF has brought in a new ( after this event and one on the 76) procedure for doors that are not to be armed (as in this case, as the arming mechanism was u/s) then the door is to be cycled to the armed position, then disramed before flight so that the airflow will no get under the external handle and crack open the door at low airspeed. As for hanging on for grim death, well...that's the media.
As for Minister for QF- what a looad of shi@e, the Government were VERY quick to knock back increased foreign ownership in QF a couple of months ago- maybe so that a foreign interest couldn't screw anational icon...sound familiar??