Everyone has been mostly banging on about the commercial impact and implications of this ridiculous saga. Much has and is being said about ethics, decision making processes and traveller inconvenience, all valid arguments that I agree with.
1) However, why is SAFETY rating so low in the scheme of this debacle? Where is the Regulator and their interest in this event?
2) It is obvious that QF's Safety Policy and Just Culture policy have been completely trashed. The adhoc manner in which QF execs instigated this event bring into the question the abilities of those who have been approved to hold the airlines AOC, correct?
3) These same actions contributed to a decline in the airlines ability to function safely, why hasnt the accountable person (CEO) been brought to task on this issue?
4) The continuous engine failures and escalation in service issues over the past few years can no longer be ignored?
5) Further concerns about QF's ability to even undertake 'root cause analysis' is every time there is an incident, or for example the engine issue leading to the diversion onto Dubai, QF hit the media saying 'it is not related to this or not related to that', which is pretty hard to do when the plane is still in the air and an investigation has not yet even started.
6) Where is the risk assessment they supposedly conducted prior to the grounding? The mystery one that somebody has allegedly done in between the close of the Friday AGM, a Board meeting Saturday then the grounding at around 1400 Saturday afternoon? Was the Safety manager involved in this, as he/she should have been?
7) What safety elements or specifics were actually considered as part of the risk assessment matrix? Was passenger personal safety considered? It wouldn't appear that way from the personal interviews and stories being aired.
8) Resources (money and people) are an element of the Safety Management System (SMS), so has QF at any stage assessed NOT the financial implications of restructuring/making staff redundant (the most recent 1000 shafted) but the safety impact on the affected departments an capabilities due those redundancies being made?
As said earlier, it is from a multitude of angles that the current QF activities
need to be thoroughly and comprehensively dissected and analyses, but from a safety perspective that should be number 1.