Pilot sent tumbling by Qantas jumbo's engine thrust
Pilot sent tumbling by Qantas jumbo's engine thrust
Matt O'Sullivan
October 20, 2011 - 10:54AM
A VIRGIN AUSTRALIA pilot has been badly injured after he was blown from stairs at the rear of a passenger jet by the engine thrust from a Qantas 747 jumbo, which was taxi-ing close to his plane.
Safety experts are looking into how the Qantas jumbo came close enough to the Boeing 737, which is operated by Virgin subsidiary Pacific Blue, to blow over the stairs on which the first officer was standing.
The pilot had been conducting pre-flight checks on the 737 passenger jet, which was parked at Brisbane Airport's international terminal, shortly before it was due to take off to Bali on Friday.
The first officer suffered a fractured arm and leg when the aluminium stairs were blown over by the force of the Qantas jumbo's engine blast. The 747 had been taxi-ing to a runway and was awaiting clearance from air traffic controllers to take off when the incident occurred.
The Qantas jumbo – QF8 – had stopped over in Brisbane to offload passengers while on its way to its final destination of Sydney. The jumbo's engines have stronger thrust than other aircraft because it is used to fly one of the longest routes in the world between Australia and Dallas, Texas.
A Virgin spokeswoman said the aluminium stairs to the 737 were blown over several times by the blast of the Qantas engines and the pilot's injuries could have been worse.
"Our plane was in the right place at the right time," she said. "The one dynamic which was different was the thrust level of the Qantas plane which caused the stairs to blow over."
But Qantas said its plane was "operating normally" under instructions from air traffic control and "at no stage" was excessive thrust used. The airline has reported the incident to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Brisbane Airport said the Virgin aircraft was in its normal parking bay when the incident occurred and, although construction work is under way at the terminal, none was happening in the nearby vicinity. There had been a suggestion that construction work meant the Virgin aircraft was in a slightly different position.