QantasLink Plane forced to land after smoke fills cabin

[VH-XXX]

Any updates on the aircraft type that was allegedly on-fire coming into Brizzy? Reports are suggesting it's a Dash-8........

[sms777]

All eyes are focused at the ground incident at Avalon today. So...
What's the latest? :ugh:

Qantas may as well start it's own Days of Our Lives on channel 9 :E

[QF94]

Any updates on the aircraft type that was allegedly on-fire coming into Brizzy? Reports are suggesting it's a Dash-8........


There is some confirmation that it was a "Sunstate/QANTASLINK" Dash 8 with smoke in the cabin. Couple that with the two 747's colliding down at Avalon during towing, it makes for a very interesting departure before the big GD once and for all departs QF. His back will look so good on November 28 after the AGM.

Interesting that one of the 747's was OJK flown back from Manila under dispensation due to Philippine Airlines not allowing QANTAS to use their hangars in response to QANTAS refusing to certify Philippine aircraft in Australia after QF dumped all foreign operators at Australian ports. Boeing carried out some of the repairs, and the remainder was to be done at Avalon. :rolleyes:

I guess all those 457 visas are finally paying off for QANTAS with all the cheap labour their sourcing from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and the like. Oh well, just another crappy day in paradise. Ho Hum. :ugh:

[Pedota]

Jeez . . . is this another example of an 'operations normal' that would not be normally reported - or are the operatational standards at QF in serious doubt??? Serious question.

Pedota

Plane forced to land after smoke fills cabin
Gabrielle Costa


A Qantas plane has been forced to land at Brisbane Airport after smoke filled the cabin.

The flight, run by charter company Sunstate - a subsidiary of Qantas and one of the QantasLink group - was believed to be a regional service.

There were reportedly 39 passengers on board the flight.

A spokesman for the Brisbane Airport Corporation confirmed the plane had been forced to land after smoke was smelt in the cabin.

He said emergency crews had been on standby but it appeared no one had been hurt.

The cause of the smoke is expected to be investigated.

Qantas could not be reached immediately. Details of the plane's origin and destination were also unavailable.

[MCKES]

Qantas curse couldn't have summed it up better at the moment. Lets hope it is just a string of bad luck, and lets hope today was the last of it.

[campdoag]

could have been Skytrans they operate a dash8 on charter out of brizzie

[The Euronator]

Pedota,

Jeez . . . is this another example of an 'operations normal' that would not be normally reported -

I am not sure what you are getting at with this statement. Might I suggest you put Swissair Flight 111 in Wikipedia & see how quickly smoke in the cockpit can deteriorate into a catastrophe...21 mins from the first smell to 229 people dead. This is not something you mess with.

[VH-XXX]

Smoke in the cockpit is certainly not considered any part of my "ops normal" !!

[RedTBar]

Get real you lot......your little fender bender at Avalon only happens about 30 times a day throughout Europe!!
One of the things that Qantas was known for was what other carriers accepted as normal ops was not acceptable to QF.

To justify or defend an incident because it happens 30 times a day in Europe does not make it acceptable to us.

[Traffic_Is_Er_Was]

Media up (or down!) to usual standards. Daily Telegraph web page has picture of wrong aircraft and wrong airline.

[Capt Wally]

'BandH' I think you are way out of line here. 'RedTBar' is correct with what he said. A lot of things happen in Europe 30 times a day (a you put it), we here are only glad we are not part of Europe!. Aus does not have to accept nor try to fulfill Europes day to day stuff-ups, who would be proud of what you have mentioned, you seem to be!:ugh:
Considering the size of Oz compared to Europe I think once incident at Avalon is enough thanks.
So YOU sit down & have a beer 'old boy' oh better make that 30 beers, then it will feel just like a normal day for you:E

And as for smoke in the cabin? WEll any QRH spells out the obvious,.........." land, you are instructed to land":ok: As for it being perhaps a QF A/C?.......... at least they give us plenty to entertain us with here:)


CW

[Capt Fathom]

2-3 Cat 2 Approaches a day

What's so hard about a Cat 2 approach :confused:


PS

I love this little gem from the SMH...

A Brisbane Airport Corporation spokeswoman said a possible worse outcome was avoided due to the smooth landing

[Alice Kiwican]

Bad day for QLink yesterday as coupled with the smoke-filled cabin problem in Brizzie they also had a bird strike in a Q400 on short final into CNS! Smashed the F.O's window sources tell me.
Must have just been one of those days!!

[pa60ops]

CW quite right - looking at the Dash 8 QRH now - "Land as soon as possible" is the quote worth reading for Fuselage Fire or Smoke. Lucky is happened so close to home base I suppose for maint action, and emerg support.

[Going Boeing]

White smoke was so thick in the mid-section of the aircraft that the F/A couldn't see the pax. On arrival in BNE, heavy rain added to the problem with reduced visibility. The Wx also meant that fire services and other vehicles had some problems in assisting pax and crew to the terminal. With everyone working to ensure a safe conclusion, along comes a BAC wally (apologies CW) who starts handing out infringement notices wrt the way some vehicles were positioned - it's hard to get good help these days.

Well done to the crew and ground staff.

[Capt Claret]

Ah, there's always a wally some where.

A former colleague told me of initiating an evacuation due to smoke in the cabin.

Cabin Crew, yelling, "..... LEAVE EVERYTHING BEHIND ...." were greeted at slide with pax frantically clutching brief cases and laptops.

IMHO they did the correct thing and let them go, because the alternative was to hold up the evacuation by removing carried items and then cluttering an already busy exit.

Mr Wally, a paxing CASA person, proceeded to criticise the CC for allowing them off a smoke filled cabin, with their possessions.

[Highflyer787]

news.com.au with a picture showing the aircraft involved was the Sunshine Express Short 360 aircraft!

Sunstate Airlines plane makes emergency landing in Brisbane | Travel News | News.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,28318,24674171-5014090,00.html)

Yet again, journalism at its finest!

[Icarus53]

I love that this article appears as "Travel News", like it's in the same category as a cheap deal on Phuket hotels or "What about a family trip to Angkor Wat?"

At least they reveled in their inaccuracy. If you're going to put a photo of an irrelevant aircraft with your article, it might as well be one from a completely different operator. Nice.

[Going Nowhere]

VH-SDE was the aircraft involved, was due to go for a test flight this afternoon before going back into service

[dizzylizzy]

Apparently a/c was u/s in RMA then suddently became servicable.

[Sue Ridgepipe]

Apparently DHC* trouble was not confined to the northern states yesterday.....

Qantas' regional fleet hits trouble | theage.com.au (http://www.theage.com.au/national/qantas-regional-fleet-hits-trouble-20081119-6bll.html)

Gotta love this...
"The incident came a month after a Qantas plane lost control and nosedived off Western Australia"

nosedived???:ugh:
wasn't it about 300 feet?

[Kangaroo Court]

In addition, it seems newsworthy to note that the meal voucher can't be spent on alcohol?!! The tyranny of it all!

[mootyman]

does anyone know when in flight the smoke started?, have seen this on a pw100 series before, maybe ad due soon on this.

[Icarus53]

If we're going to throw down arbitrary comparisons, I'm waiting for something like:

"The incident comes only years after a completely different aircraft type operated by a separate company suffered an unrelated system failure, which was also scary and inconvenient for passengers".

Only a very slightly longer bow, don't you think?:ugh:

[Going Boeing]

Posted by mootyman
does anyone know when in flight the smoke started?, have seen this on a pw100 series before, maybe ad due soon on this.

I believe that it happened in cruise less than one hour from BNE (Roma - Brisbane sector).

Posted by dizzylizzy
Apparently a/c was u/s in RMA then suddently became servicable.

That's my understanding. The pax were aware that there was a problem as the service was delayed. Apparently, there was communication with engineering in BNE, but I don't know the nature of the defect.

[Merlins Magic]

I believe that it happened in cruise less than one hour from BNE (Roma - Brisbane sector).

Just as well. The RMA-BN sector is only 1 hour.

It would be fair to assume that given the nature of the problem, that it would have been during the descent into BN. Any earlier and a diversion back to RMA or to OK would have been made.

[dizzylizzy]

If I read the reports correctly, it says there were 4crew... but its a Q200... so Capt & FO (obvious) but 2 in the cabin? Someone in training?

[mootyman]

So would it be a good guess to say top of decent that this happenend?

[pa60ops]

Cant quite remember back to my old days - but im pretty sure SDE was a 200 series all right. So two up front and one in the back.

[Traffic_Is_Er_Was]

"...With everyone working to ensure a safe conclusion, along comes a BAC wally (apologies CW) who starts handing out infringement notices wrt the way some vehicles were positioned"

I believe that the drivers of the airline vehicles involved here were issued the infringements because they approached the aircraft before the Fire Service Commander had declared the area safe, parked their vehicles in such positions as to impede the Firies access and ignored numerous requests to move them.

[dizzylizzy]

For the trainee it gives a new meaning to baptism of fire. :}

[Going Boeing]

Traffic_Is_Er_Was, the first infringement was legit but could be put down to poor vis associated with the weather. The young driver thought that he was doing the right thing but was unaware that he had cut off one of the RFF vehicles. The second vehicle remained clear until the RFF vehicles (& the BAC wally's vehicle) had cleared the area & then proceeded to a position at the rear of the aircraft (clear of other services). Said BAC wally returned & issued the infringement notice to the driver, even though the aircraft was on the apron and was now the responsibility of the airline staff - not BAC or RFF etc

[dizzylizzy]

Just goes to show you the quality of people that company employs.

[megle2]

This "BAC wally" drives a ?? vehicle.
Is he one of the "safety officers" who do runway inspections ect?
Or one of the many BAC vehicles that prowl around ie civvy type vehicles.

[Worrals in the wilds]

Is he one of the "safety officers" who do runway inspections ect?


Correct. Duties include regulating apron traffic.

[megle2]

Ummm, interesting.
I wonder what other powers they have.

[Going Boeing]

Posted by Worrals in the wilds
Correct. Duties include regulating apron traffic.

That is correct in day to day operations, but when an emergency has been declared and staff are going about their duties ensuring the safety of pax & crew, handing out infringement notices sounds like abuse of power. A more appropriate way of handling this would have have been for the BAC person to have a quiet word to the drivers after all the passengers and crews had disembarked, and told them how to do it better in the future. After all, the QLink staff were looking after their pax, on their aeroplane, on their tarmac - if BAC is going to play heavy handed policeman, then we should move to the US system whereby each airline is responsible for the safe movement of every vehicle/aeroplane/staff/pax on their tarmac. Maybe we have too many layers of policeing going on at Oz terminals.