Broken Virgin Aircraft

[Minimbah]

Pilot turns back 'broken' "Virgin flight

[/URL]
Angry travellers say technical problems have grounded a Virgin Blue flight from Adelaide to Coolangatta.


Passengers say the plane had taxied onto the runway at 8:30am ACST before the pilot turned it back.
They say the pilot told them the aircraft was 'broken' and they should disembark.
It is estimated that about 100 people were delayed at Adelaide Airport waiting for another flight."

From ABC News Website [URL]http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/11/2331248.htm (http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200703/r131547_436775.jpg)

Love the term "broken" allegedly used by the crew! :)

[Stationair8]

Probably not polite to say over the PA its "fecked"

[piston broke again]

Wonder if m'bah happens to work for the red rat...

[ozmahseer]

Follow the link and listen to the audio, poor Ian is upset because they had to return to the "terminus".
Quality reporting from the ABC here!

If something is broken then it gets fixed.
If something is U/S then it gets rectified.
If there are technical difficulties then they get resolved.
Either way it's all the same, but just don't scare the pax.

Must be a slow news month.

[VH-Cheer Up]

Honestly you can't win.

Broken is as broken does, to borrow a little from Forrest Gump... Whatever the captain called it, the end result was back to the terminal and get you on another flight.

Imagine the complaints if the captain had elected to proceed with a "broken" aircraft. How peeved would the passengers be if they found out - for example, when the "broken" part manifested itself, say, as an air return 15-20 minutes in? Or - heaven forbid - a sudden irreconcilable loss of control (substitute peeved-off passengers for peeved-off relatives instead).

Media staff covering every non-event from the aviation world should start widening their horizons. Why not report when Mr. Jones at 5 Acacia Gardens Bridgewater car won't start, and he has to tell his wife her 10:30 departure to the hairdressers has been cancelled pending arrival of a new battery?

SLF and media should get a freaking life.

VH-Grumpy

[tasdevil.f27]

Had a DJ flight return empty to MEL from LST a few days ago for a repair, and everyone was put up in local hotels, nothing was reported in the media which is a nice change.

[TBM-Legend]

flying [hopefully] BNE-SYD tomorrow...'0700AM' departure cancelled due to "Commercial reasons"...re-booked on a later flight - not good as I'm going for a day trip.....

this is a crisis - who has the number for the 'Courier Mail'??? only kidding:ooh:

[THE IRON MAIDEN]

Wait till Tracey Grimshaw gets hold of a "leaked" internal report from Virgin!

So far they have had a crusade on Jet Star and Qantas... So it must be Virgin's turn..

( Geebus, Imagine if ACA and TT were told about all the "technical difficulties" experienced in 30yr old GA aeroplanes. )

[ozangel]

its funny,

having worked at qantas and virgin domestically (in the cabin), these ACA/TT types that fly - always seem to be upgraded to best seats in the house - and act like superstars.

When they dont get their UPGRADE, they turn so negative.

Hence, my sneaking suspicion is:

someone at QF seriously upset a journalist, and the 'terminus' bloke was a relative of the journalist.

The only media personality I have respect for is Sorrell Wilby (formerly of Great Outdoors). I would sneak her up to business class anyday - even invited the crew around for dinner one cold rainy wintery night on norfolk...

[clark y]

Nothing wrong with saying broken.
Two other options though....

We could be technically precise to push the point-
"Sorry but ADIRS 1 is unserviceable which has rendered FMGC1 and one of the primary altimeters inoperative which is required for flight within RVSM airspace, forcing us to fly at a lower flight level. This will increase the engines rate of consumption of hyrdocarbons to a point where we will exhaust our variable and fixed reserves at approximately 25 miles to run to the initial approach fix."

Or speak in a language that would probably convince most people that returning to the terminal is a good thing-
"We could have a crack at it, but there is a much better chance that we would end up in a smoking hole."

[greenslopes]

Or you could carry more fuel in the first place, or make a "Tech" stop for more fuel on the way.....either way flying lower does not preclude operating safely.

But I get your point!

[Capn Bloggs]

"Broken"? Not very smart. There are plenty of other ways to explain to your pax that you're not going anywhere due to a techincal issue. Reminds me of "emergency descent" and "catastrophic failure" being used on the PA. The people on the receiving end may not be aviation-savvy and take PAs literally.

Engage brain before opening PA mouth.

[Teal]

From today's Crikey.com.au

Virgin jet flapless in Melbourne

Ben Sandilands writes:

A very serious problem with a Virgin Blue Embraer E-170 jet at Melbourne Airport on Sunday night is being investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. The 78 seat jet had left Sydney at 7.34pm and was only minutes from touch down some 22 kilometres from Tullamarine when the pilots reported difficulties controlling the aircraft. They then made a faster than usual landing without using the wing flaps to slow the jet.

The problem in technical terms was a malfunctioning inboard slat actuator torque limiter. Translation: this made the jet fly crooked. The pilots decided it was better to make a safe, if unusual, landing without the flaps rather than continue to troubleshoot the problem. This ‘straight but quick’ approach resulted in the flight actually landing a few minutes sooner than scheduled.

Virgin Blue says it will make a statement today. The investigation will review the maintenance and service history of the Brazilian made jet. Neither the airline nor the ATSB have yet confirmed the extent of the sudden control problems experienced by the Virgin Blue flight.

[tasdevil.f27]

Oh no, dont tell me Virgin has caught the Qantas media frenzy disease. Seriously do we need to hear about every little problem an aircraft is going to have. :mad:

Do people expect that every plane in australia is never going to have a breakdown or mechanical issue. More typical :mad: from an average reporter.

[anawanahuanana]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/SparkkedUp/Random/thriller.gif

[PyroTek]

I haven't seen anything about this on the news. I think the media has decided to target qantas for now...

[greenslopes]

So how does Ben determine what a serious problem is??.... let alone a very serious problem!

Perhaps Ben is guilty of that heinous crime......................writing first and checking facts later(Thank goodness he's not a policeman.........but then again at least they have protocols and review boards).

Nice one Goose!

[clark y]

Greenslopes,

don't know what real the problem was. I just thought I'd give a couple of light hearted examples of explaining it to the passengers instead of just broken (should has used an emoticon).

Either way, I have actually had a pax tell me on disembarking a "broken" aeroplane that he would "have a crack at it".

clark y.