Qantas plane grounded twice

[lowerlobe]

Qantas plane grounded twice

August 07, 2007

A QANTAS Boeing 767 has been grounded twice within 48 hours, disrupting the holiday plans of hundreds of passengers, and forcing the airline to again defend its maintenance record.

On both occasions, the plane departed almost 24 hours late after parts were flown from Australia to Hong Kong.

Qantas has been plagued by maintenance problems, prompting claims by engineers that the consequences of years of cost-cutting are now surfacing.

On July 26, an unspecified mechanical problem forced a Brisbane-bound Qantas Boeing 767 to return to Hong Kong airport after its departure.

On July 28, another Brisbane-bound flight by the same plane, with 230 passengers aboard, was aborted before take-off when a maintenance check revealed further defects.

Last week, an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report revealed that a Qantas 767 flew from Darwin to Brisbane with a burning cloth in the engine after crew ignored a fire warning.

At the same time, it emerged that four of five sections of emergency lighting wiring in a Qantas jumbo had been crudely repaired using staples.

In March, a Qantas audit raised doubts about the standard of maintenance conducted overseas.

Australian Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Association federal secretary Steve Purvinas said the Hong Kong groundings were cause for further concern.

"There was a time when Qantas had minimum standards, which they would enforce and go beyond. Now it's down to the bare minimum," he said.

Qantas engineering manager David Cox said the airline was pleased with the performance of its 29-strong Boeing 767 fleet.

[Buster Hyman]

Where are those "767 grounding lovers" from CASA when you need them?:suspect:

[Magoodotcom]

And QF 767s are maintained where??? :hmm:

Magoo

[Going Boeing]

Lobe, could you leave the source details when you post so that we know who wrote the article. This article bears the hallmarks of Steve Creedy who is renowned for lack of research and simply regurgitates information supplied to him. He also over sensationalises ie a Qantas 767 flew from Darwin to Brisbane with a burning cloth in the engine after crew ignored a fire warning. This bears no resemblence to what actually occured and is journalistic BS. PPRuNers should mount a campaign against Creedy and other media lowlife who repeatedly alter the facts to sensationalise a story.

[lowerlobe]

Going Boeing....

I did not want to give anyone a plug but if you go to yahoo7 and select news and search for Qantas.

I think we all realise that reporters have a good sense of journalistic license however we can usually read between the lines and separate fact and sensationalism.

As such we all know that a crew would never ignore a fire warning and it was basically the news about an aircraft grounded twice in 48 hours that I was interested in.

[podbreak]

As such we all know that a crew would never ignore a fire warning and it was basically the news about an aircraft grounded twice in 48 hours that I was interested in.

Sadly though, most people don't know this. Often this stuff borders on defamation...

[oicur12]

"Where are those "767 grounding lovers" from CASA when you need them?"

They only surface after instruction from the transport minister for politically motivated reasons generally unrelated to flight safety.

[AnQrKa]

anybody remember a QF aircraft - 76 or 74 cant remember - had a slide deploy in the pax cabin going to new zillund i think. There was a pic on the front page of a news paper - this is going back to about the year 2000. No mention was made though during the ansett slide debacle. Wonder why.

[Buster Hyman]

They were saving up for when CASA crucified us probably.:hmm:

[satos]

The simple fact was Ansett was a threat to Qantas and that threat had to be eliminated.Virgin blue at the time was a minnow and posed no threat.

[poacher2gamekeeper]

Guys,

ANSETT is dead.

I know 'cause I was at the funeral. Great turn out! 15,000 suspects attended the wake.

Let it rest, for god's sake.

[Buster Hyman]

You signed up to post that? :rolleyes:

Perhaps, you couldn't bring yourself to posting it under your regular username!:=

It is resting btw, resting in peace...

If you've ever been overtaken by a fast car & then pulled over by the cops yourself, then you'd know what it's like. Every now & then you perceive an injustice (rightly or wrongly), and it all comes flooding back.

I know 'cause I was at the funeral. Great turn out! 15,000 suspects attended the wake.
:D I'm so happy you can make light of 15,000 people out of a job! You must be great at parties!:hmm:

[The Bungeyed Bandit]

poacher2gamekeeper, I gotta say I have to agree with you. Sorry Buster but the analogy I'd prefer is if you see a freight train coming straight towards you, you should get out of the way. I wasn't at the funeral because I could see that train coming and so avoided the train wreck that was Ansett's demise. All you guys who stuck it out (all 15000 of you) were living in an amazing world of self denial if you thought the culture that existed in Ansett could go on forever. It was great while it lasted but you can only milk a cow like Ansett constantly for so long before it rolls over and dies.
Like poacher2gamekeeper said ANSETT is dead. Let it rest, for god's sake.

[The Professor]

Poacher,

I think you will find most, including buster, have “let it rest”.

Making reference to a business that no longer exists in order to draw a parallel to current industry issues is not inappropriate. Ansett deserves a place in history irregardless of how you feel about it. It existed, it failed, it hurt a lot of people..

Bungeyed,

“ . . . if you thought the culture that existed in Ansett could go on forever.”

What culture would that be then? Does Qantas have a radically different culture that ensured it prevailed in the airline industry and not Ansett?

Or is it a little more complex than that? As Satos alluded to, there was a lot of politics involved in the demise of Ansett. The news reports of QF engineering and outsourcing, oversights and the general stuff ups that CASA appear to overlook confirm that that the regulator was not interested in a level playing field.

[Buster Hyman]

Fair enough Bandit. But...if you were tied to the track & one rail was your mortgage & other debt, whilst the other rail was your lack of transferable skills outside aviation & the sleepers were years you had invested in the organisation...then, I guess you would see that train, but you'd possibly suck in yer gut & hope it passes on over you.

Yeah, it's over. We all painfully know it's over, but unless you were a QF employee or a short time AN one, you probably don't get what it meant to so many.

:ok:

[Magoodotcom]

This article bears the hallmarks of Steve Creedy who is renowned for lack of research and simply regurgitates information supplied to him.

...and yet, the byline of the story is attributed to Greg Roberts. :hmm:

Another fine piece of research there GB!:D

Magoo

[Keg]

Geez Magoo, you're a bit quick to throw stones on this one. A casual reading of Going Boeing's post would reveal this little pearler in the first sentence.

...could you leave the source details when you post so that we know who wrote the article.

Perhaps GB didn't have the time or inclination to 'research' this one. Personally if someone is going to post up a news article I like to have the source also so that I actually an go and read the original- including who wrote it.

I agree with GB though. Without having the article attributed to anyone it did have a ring of 'Creedy' to it. I can also recognise Sandilands and Thomas when I read them too.

Obviously I'll need to keep an eye out for this Roberts clown now too. That shouldn't be too hard....I'm used to reading clown pieces in another publication from a bloke called Roberts. :E :ok: :}

[VH-Cheer Up]

I feel your pain, Buster, I feel your pain.

Seems to me that many business travellers also feel the pain from what I hear talking to the punters these days. The people down the back meanwhile are all lapping up the new world order discounts, whinging about the service, and lining up for sparkly face paint. Good for them.

The Ansett culture was very good to the customers. Perhaps, sometimes, too good.

But Ansett's demise was a piece of international corporate thuggery on a grand scale, even by comparison with HIH, OneTel, The Lifestyle Group, WestPoint, and all.

[Buster Hyman]

Yeah, look, I know its all in the past now, but there were so many factors that are repeating themselves all around corporate Oz today. My hope, at the time, was that such a big collapse & financial hardship it caused would never be repeated. Alas, we are all just as vulnerable 6 years later. Add to that the erosion of awards & I'm glad my current organisation will NEVER go to the wall like AN did.

Its fine to tell us (AN, Compass, Impulse, OzJet)to get over it, but I sincerely hope that it doesn't happen in this industry again. With bonus hungry management in power around the place though, I think its when & not if!:(

[The Golden Rivet]

flap pdu was the problem, flaps not coming down together, one part changed (did'nt work) whole pdu changed, now fixed........... done


ps: 8 years with the blue tail, loved it, now gone and haved moved on to bigger and better things .. easy

:ok:

[Buster Hyman]

Yes DA, my bad. I'm assuming that Impulse staff may have preferred life as Impulse rather than Rat Link...Don't know anyone to verify that of course!:ok:

Good one Rivett! Good to see.:ok: I was over 17 years there so, perhaps I'm suffering Stockholm Syndrome???;)

[permFO]

Your assumption is correct Buster. The people who were with Impulse pine for the old days and are none too happy with Jetstar. You did however forget to mention TAA, but I suppose DA would say they were more than happy to be taken over by Qantas.

Its interesting that all the history revisionists say that we should have seen it coming, but we were being told that there would be a solution at the ANZ Board meeting leading up to the VA. NO ONE, not even Terry McCrann, who had a lot to say on the subject, predicted that the airline would be cut adrift in the manner that it was. And not even the CIA, NSC, FBI, ASIO, MI5, MI6 or Mossad could see September 11 and the effect it would have on the worldwide aviation market.

Getting over it doesn't mean forgetting.