Yes I have a reasonable amount of experience towing aircraft. If you haven't been to LA go have a look at Google Earth or a photo of the joint, there's more lines than a Mr Sqiggle drawing.

If the towbar has broken twice then that's just bad luck. If they have stuffed it up twice then really there is no excuse for that. Given the speed at which you tow aircraft there should be no excuses for hitting something it is usually a case of misjudgement or inattention.

I heard this evening on ABC radio (PM) stories about stranded pax in LA told they had been checked in back to OZ with a different carrier to discover the new carrier knows nothing of the pax...still stranded. VA management refused interviews to explain what was happenning!

+G

Heard today that JB is still cranky about this fiasco and more blood is to be shed.
Interesting how the Virgin group of entities have not been auditing third party providers, including ramp ops. Some third parties have not had so much as a 'look at' in years. They will do an audit when they get advanced notice of when and where CASA is going to take a look, but otherwise they do jack s#it.
Plenty of issues going under the carpet of late. Incorrect aircraft loadings, GSE damage to aircraft going unreported, and much of this is known to Ground Ops Managers responsible for domestic operations and international operations. Seems some managers are too busy doing masters degree's or hooning around Brisbane in their sports cars to worry about safety concerns.