Travolta still keen on Qantas

[Wirraway]

Fri "The Australian"

Travolta still keen on Qantas
From Peter Mitchell in Los Angeles
April 16, 2004

JOHN Travolta still wears his Qantas pilot cap proudly and says he is keen to continue his role as Qantas' Ambassador-at-Large.

The Hollywood favourite is to undertake another world-wide flying tour in his vintage Boeing 707, a former Qantas passenger jet.

"I hope to do it for as long as Qantas wants me to," Travolta said.

The two-time Oscar nominee, who is qualified to fly a 747, says he will be a regular visitor to Australia.

To keep his qualifications as a 747 pilot Travolta has to undertake testing three times a year and his preference is to do it at the Qantas flight facility in Sydney.

Travolta and some of his co-pilots fly to Australia to undertake the gruelling testing.

"There's a big Qantas building at the airport and in that building there's the latest up-to-date simulators for the 747 and we go over there and do it," Travolta said.

"They throw simulated dangers at you, one after another.

"All day long you are bombarded by fake emergencies, but you have to treat them as though they're really happening to you so your heart pounds, your adrenalin goes but you handle it."

Travolta is also qualified to fly 707 passenger planes and Gulfstream jets so he also has to do specific training to remain proficient in both.

The strict training regime means the actor has to juggle his $US20 million ($27.04 million) a film Hollywood career with his passion for flying.

"That's why I don't produce or direct because the time I take to keep up my hours and professional profile as a pilot would be the time I would be producing and directing," he said.

"You can't do both.

"You can be a hired actor and be a professional pilot, but you can't be a hired actor, producer, director and still be a professional pilot. There's not enough time in the day.

"Whenever I'm finished with a movie then I have to dedicate so much time to the flying to keep proficiency."

The 50-year-old actor was able to combine his acting career with flying on his latest film, the Marvel Comics adaptation The Punisher.

While most actors rent a luxurious home or stay in a hotel suite while shooting a film away from home, Travolta flew himself each day from his home in Ocala, Florida, to The Punisher set in Tampa Bay, also in Florida.

His six bedroom mansion is built in a "pilot's resort" and has two garages connected to the house to park his 707 and Gulfstream jets. The house is also connected to a runway capable of landing a 747.

"It was great because I was able to see my wife and kids each day," Travolta said.

In 2002 Travolta embarked on The Spirit Of Friendship Tour for Qantas, flying his 707 from Los Angeles to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, Rome, Paris, Frankfurt and New York.

Travolta said he approached Qantas about teaming up.

"I went to them and said 'I love your airline, it has a perfect safety record for 84 years and I would like to be part of it somehow' and they came up with the ambassador idea," he said.

"They offered me to get my 747 wings and I did then I flew around the world twice for them and I enjoyed every second of it. I love being their ambassador." The Punisher is due for release in Australia in August.

==========================================

[Animalclub]

Quote

"I went to them and said 'I love your airline, it has a perfect safety record for 84 years and I would like to be part of it somehow' and they came up with the ambassador idea," he said.

Unquote.

Travolta had better check his facts about a perfect safety record.

[hoss]

Dear John T, I know your busy but never too busy to log onto PPRuNE;) . So next time your in D&G send me a PM, I look forward to hearing from you:) . Safe flying:ok: .

[ugly]

Travolta had better check his facts about a perfect safety record.

Besides the little incident with the golf course in Bangkok back in '99 I couldn't find any going back to '45. I know they lost an Empire Flying Boat in '42 - after the Japanese shot it up, but it was moored at the time.

[Kaptin M]

In fact, you'd have to say that El Capitano Travolta is too smart to be a pilotthe actor has to juggle his $US20 million ($27.04 million) a film Hollywood career.......His six bedroom mansion is built in a "pilot's resort" and has two garages connected to the house to park his 707 and Gulfstream jets.How many pilots can lay claim to having made THAT sort of money!! :} NONE that I know of :(

BTW, ugly, "perfect" means precisely that - the "little incident with the golf course in Bangkok back in '99" was more than a "little" incident - it was a BIG ACCIDENT!
One which sufficiently blemished QANTAS' record, to the point where the word "perfect" is no longer applicable.

[Keg]

Ugly, QF has lots of prangs in it's history- some of them fatal as well.

In no particular order, we've had more than one aircraft shot down (and never recovered I think!) during WWII, we had a Lancastrian 'swing' on landing with subsequnt gear failure and fire (ironically, also due in part to poor flap selection for the met conditions prevalent at the time!) ran a Super Connie off the runway in Mauritius in 1960 . None killed in those last two but as I said, I'm pretty sure we had crew and pax killed during WWII but I haven't found any hard numbers yet. Others may recall those other accidents and BKK certainly factors in with that term 'accident'.

Still, JT is doing the job for QF. Everyone that met him when he was at the jet base in SYD reckoned he was a top bloke- even if his Scientology stuff is a bit dodgy! ;) :E

[The_Cutest_of_Borg]

I marvel at the speed at which some Ppruner's raise the safety record thing.

You never hear bona-fide QF people bring it up It is a good record but we are all very aware of the thread it hangs by.

We are also aware of the "Rain Man" misconceptions generally held by the public about it.

I believe the last QF fatality was in PNG in 1947. 67 years fatality free isn't bad. But there is no doubt that an element of luck is involved in that figure.

[Keg]

Maths a bit off today there Borgie! 67 years since '47 would actually make it 2014. 57 is closer to the mark. Either way, it's not bad and as you say, it hangs by a slender thread which we're all aware of!

:D

[Animalclub]

This is one of several....

ACCIDENT DATE : 16 July 1951

TYPE : DHA3 Drover

REGISTRATION : VH-EBQ

OPERATOR : QANTAS

ON BOARD : 1 Crew / 6 Passengers

FATALITIES 1 Crew / 6 Passengers

LOCATION : Lae, Papua New Guinea

FURTHER DETAILS…

Crashed into the sea off Lae airport.

SOURCE…

“Balus” The Aeroplane in Papua New Guinea, Volume 1, by James Sinclair. Published in 1986 by Robert Brown and Associates (Aust) Pty. Ltd., PO Box 29 Bathurst, New South Wales 2795, Australia.


Since becoming an all jet airline QF has had no fatalities... just like PX and a few others.

[ugly]

BTW, ugly, "perfect" means precisely that - the "little incident with the golf course in Bangkok back in '99" was more than a "little" incident - it was a BIG ACCIDENT!
I heard someone once say that the B747 should have been written off but they had it repaired so than can say it wasn't an accident but an 'incident'. Anyone confirm?

Animal Thanks for the info on the Drover - something to read up about

Still - not a bad record compared to say US Air? My brother flew with them a few years ago and got a bit worried when the taxi driver said "You're flying with US Scare? Good luck!"

[Keg]

Ugly, the information you have is incorrect- at least according to the information I have! ;) :p From my sources within the airline (and not just flight ops) aircraft was repaired for a lot less than $100 Mill. Try finding a replacement 744 at that price!

Further, no matter what, the QF1 in BKK was an 'accident'. The then CEO may have called it an incident but according to the law, it was an accident and treated as such by all QF crew. What you may have heard is that the aircraft was repaired to stop a 'hull loss' appearing on the QF record. See my first paragraph for an answer to that!

Hope the info is uesful!

[ugly]

Keg Thanks for the heads up ;)

[Torres]

I think you will find the last Qantas fatality was in the mid 50's in the PNG Highlands. The pilot was Rhynus Zuydam (plus passenger?), the aircraft a de Havilland DH-84 Dragon. I'm not sure whether the aircraft belonged to Qantas or was operating a flight on behalf of Qantas.

Nonetheless, an excellent accident and safety record.

[Buster Hyman]

I hope it was a reputable repairer! Not the "I've got a cousin in Shenzen that'll fix that for you!" trick!!!

;)

Hoss.
Is it true that JT reads Pprune? If he does, I want my money back for the pirate version of Battlefield Earth that I bought in HKG!!!:}

[Lusimtingting]

Torres

I think that one was a Qantas single engined Otter at Togaba
Cpt Zuydam and F/O Brian Badger both killed.

[Nigel Osborn]

I was always told that no fare paying passenger had been killed in a Qantas plane.

If correct, that is a pretty good record.

[Keg]

Nigel, go back and read the previous page again...

[Nudlaug]

The repair of QF1 in BKK was mainly done by BOEING in conjuction with Qantas engineers. A big part of the socalled Section 41 on the underside got replaced as a whole (the front belly basically). Pretty amazing to see the photos when the structure was supported via huge beams through the main deck pax windows and the lower fuselage got replaced, well done BOEING!:ok:

[farqueue]

QANTAS lost a plane way back, and almost lost a second one at, I think Esondon. The balance weights fatigued and fell of giving a life time supply of forward stick. The `almost' incedent supplied the answer to why they had a nasty habit of falling out of the sky.

I think the details can be found in one of the 3 vols of air crashes. Damm, can't think of the authors name at the moment.

[Atlas Shrugged]

I went to them and said 'I love your airline.........and I would like to be part of it somehow
and I thought it was hard to get a Qantas gig

AS

[redsnail]

Macarthur Job perhaps?

[Desert Dingo]

This info was posted some time ago on another thread. Seems an appropriate time to post it again. It shows the value of an airline having a good PR department. :ok:


Put up your hand all of you who believe Qantas has never had a passenger fatality. OK. Put your hands down now. You lot are WRONG!
Qantas have been littering the countryside with wrecked aircraft and dead passengers for a long time.

A search through www.planecrashinfo.com reveals the following info about Qantas' fatalities:

de Havilland DH-9C G-AUED 24 Mar 1927 - 3 died
de Havilland DH-86 VH-USG 15 Nov 1934 - 4 died
de Havilland DH-86 VH-USE 20 Feb 1942 - 9 died
Short S-23 (flying boat) VH-ADU 22 Apr 1943 - 13 died
Lockheed 18 Lodestar VH-CAB 26 Nov 1943 - 15 died
Short S-23 (flying boat) VH-ABB 11 Oct 1944 - 1 died
Lancastrian VH-EAS 07 April 1949 - 0 died
de Havilland Drover II VH-EBQ 16 Jul 1951 - 7 died
Lockheed L1049 VH-EAC 24 August 1960 - 0 died
Boeing B747 VH-OJH 22 September 1999 - 0 died

Also, there is an article about the L1049 crash at Mauritius at http://www.casa.gov.au/avreg/fsa/do...0jan/page49.pdf where it mentions that on 23 March 1946 a Lancastrian G-AGLX operated by Qantas with 5 crew and 5 passengers went missing on a flight between Colombo and Cocos Is. and no trace of it was ever found.

I must admit to once believing that Qantas had a perfect safety record. This shows the power of selecting only the statistics you want. I think Qantas start counting from 1952 onwards. A bit like the White Star Line ruling a line just after the Titanic and counting from there.

Qantas do have a good record, but it is not as perfect as some people would have you believe.

[Animalclub]

QANTAS either advertised or let it be known, many many years ago, that they had not had a fatality since they became an all jet airline. Still a very good record.

[Feather #3]

Indeed, the claim only relates to RPT airline operations with jet aircraft.

Note that three of the fatals were due to enemy action and the only post-war in the Drover was Jul51. That's still not too bad?

Cheers ;)

[Animalclub]

F3

I know that these are small aircraft operated when aviation was an adventure, to say the least, especially in Papua New Guinea... I've been scared more than once... but here's another one post WW11...

ACCIDENT DATE : 13 December 1951

TYPE : DH84 Dragon

REGISTRATION : VH-URV

OPERATOR : QANTAS

ON BOARD : 1 Crew / 2 Passengers

FATALITIES : 1 Crew / 2 Passengers

LOCATION : Yaramunda, Papua New Guinea

FURTHER DETAILS…

The two passengers were Department of Civil Aviation officials inspecting the new airstrip at Yaramunda. The pilot made a run over Yaramunda strip at a very low altitude, and was forced by the terrain up a gorge from which his Dragon lacked the performance to escape.

SOURCE…

“Balus” The Aeroplane in Papua New Guinea, Volume 1, by James Sinclair. Published in 1986 by Robert Brown and Associates (Aust) Pty. Ltd., PO Box 29 Bathurst, New South Wales 2795, Australia.

[Torres]

Lusimtingting. I think you may be correct. I was always under the impression Zuydam's aircraft was a Dragon but did see a recent reference to the aircraft being a single Otter.

Interesting enough, that accident isn't listed in Qantas's list of accidents listed by DesertDingo which makes me think the aircraft may have been owned by Madang Air Services, MAL or one of the other operators, on charter to Qantas?

I'll check the facts in "Balus" and with Jim Sinclair or Bobby Gibbes.

DesertDingo. I suspect (from the registration) "Lockheed 18 Lodestar VH-CAB" was not a Qantas aircraft, rather one of the fleet of "military/civil" transports operated by Qantas on behalf of the Commonwealth - as were the DC3 and DC5 "biscuit bombers", operating into PNG, including ex KNILN DC3 VH-CXD (?) which crashed at Bamaga.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt Qantas have an excellent safety record, the envy of many airlines, worldwide.

[Buster Hyman]

As I have indicated previously, and no doubt many agree, highlighting a commercial opponents safety record is awfully poor form. With that in mind, I also have a difficulty in promoting ones own safety record, but for different reasons. There is, literally, nothing wrong with it, I just feel that it's something that shouldn't be used as a selling point.

Granted, the public want to fly on a safe carrier and deserve to know who is, but there should be a mechanism in place where an independant party can illustrate the relative safety of each carrier. Otherwise, it just degenerates into a mines better than yours debate.

[Feather #3]

Folks, note the words carefully in QF's claim/s.

There have been incidents aplenty [& BKK was an accident!:ooh: ] and charter/aerial work post-WWII fatals are not included.

In this thread and others before, there's been no denial of this by Keg, myself or any other QF employees/supporters. The denial is that QF have apparently lied with their claims; they've been selective [and what's new about that in aviation? Sorry, didn't mean to bring the NAS into this!! :rolleyes: ]

G'day ;)

[itchybum]

Having recently sat through (yet again) the QANTAS/Travolta video special in the cabin, what I really wonder is: Whom is Travolta saluting when he steps out of the cockpit onto the stairs?

And where did he learn to salute?

The USAF? USN? Hollywood???

QANTAS????

Are all the pilots supposed to salute each other in QANTAS? How long does this take? Or is it just the capts? Should I practice??

I have to say, I'd love to have my own 707, JP and all the rest of whatever he owns and flies and I like JT as an actor but all the saluting, standing around with the cap tucked under his arm, etc.... it all made my stomach turn. :yuk:

I guess only the fabulously wealthy can be so unflinchingly cheesy. :ok:

[Lurk R]

And I thought the only way to get into QF was direct entry or cadet. Obviously there is the lesser known "movie star" pathway. Will Eric Bana become a CSM ambassador???

[Animalclub]

In the "old" days in Lae the TAA Traffic Officer and cargo line used to line up and "salute" the departure of VH-INU(seless) and VH-INH(opeless), bothe DC6B's. I believe Ansett did the same.

[hoss]

Just trying to stay as efficient as Buster:ok: and noticed JT land his 707 on Rwy 25 at Sydney about an hour ago:) . Anyone know why he's in town? Could it be ILS recency in the 744 sim;) .

[Groaner]

Can't let this one go past...

aircraft was repaired for a lot less than $100 Mill. Try finding a replacement 744 at that price

Well, fairly easy, actually. Bunch of ex-UA 744s being offered a few months back at WAY less than that... (like, try half)

Given the impaired value as a highly-repaired hull, doubt whether doing the repair was an economic decision.

[Feather #3]

Well, Groaner, as I've pointed out before, it wasn't exactly QF's decision. The insurance paid in full to have it repaired.

Equally, there weren't too many 2nd hand B744 sitting around at the time!!

G'day ;)

[Keg]

Yeah Groaner and the QF engineers that had a look at those very same UAL B744s sent back some VERY negative press about them. Perhaps thats why they weren't worth much. As Captain feathersword mentions, the market of Sep '99- May '00 is a very different one to that over the last few months! :rolleyes:

[Buster Hyman]

The insurance paid in full to have it repaired.
Who are they & do they insure cars?

[BankAngle50]

I also watched the inflight video whilst feeding my face up the front of a QF B763. Although the shot of JT saluting was brief, I also wondered who he was saluting. I guess its for the camera's and paparazzi; and I suppose it would look good in USA Today?

Personally I’m glad that JT and his crew wear a proper uniform and that he is upholding some the dignity that has been eroded from our profession in recent years. You don’t see other professionals wearing a blue singlet! At least JT talks up the profession instead of dragging down to truck driver level.

Good on him!
:ok:

[Groaner]

Not just the UA 744s were available. Quite a few others...

I stand by my "not an economic repair" comment

[High Altitude]

Bugga again.....

The JT jet was in Darwin last night and they missed the VALET parking I had set up:{

[MR69696]

He`s in Sing, boy it looks small next to a 747

[P47]

In all Policy & Procedure manuals I know of, any "occurence" involving damage to aircraft or injury to persons is defined as "ACCIDENT" ! I did hear however that Jimmy bow tie wanted to change the definition so that the "mishap" could be defined as INCIDENT !
What does this say about an ego trip ?

[Keg]

Fair enough Groaner. You're wrong.

[E.P.]

So was the Ansett 747 nose slide on 16 in SYD an incident or accident..........by QF standards?? BTW what is JTs handle on Pprune? :rolleyes:

[Buster Hyman]

Danny Zucko??????

[1279shp]

Travolta's House (http://www.b-ill.com/albinator/showpic.php?aid=5&pid=3306&uuid=2)

:ooh:

[Cactus Jack]

I'm not sure about the relevance of all this argument to the thread, but I beleive that QF is it's own insurer?

[fartsock]

I wonder if JT would be so keen on supporting Jetstar if hev realised it is the lead element in the destruction of the standard of airline pilot in this country

[WALLEY2]

Ok I give up, how does JT sneak in when he comes home late after a few beers with his mates. Can you put a 707 in neutral and stealth mode?