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VA020 Food poisoning.

Today show reporting flight due to arrive Melbourne from Phuket with possibly 10 serious injurues following turbulence enroute. Flight to be met by several ambulances at the airport now. Anyone know if it's landed yet?

Turns out the media were wrong (surprise, surprise). Appears its a food poisoning instead. I look like a goose now.

The Age is still running with food poisoning and turbulence being the cause...

Quote:

Turbulence, food poisoning strikes V Australia flight
Thomas Hunter
February 1, 2011 - 9:13AM
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Passengers and flight crew suffered from food poisoning and turbulence-related injuries on a V Australia service from Phuket early today, paramedics say.

Ambulance crews went to Melbourne Airport to meet the plane following reports that eight people - four cabin crew and four passengers - had been injured when VA20 hit turbulence north of Jakarta.

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''A small number of guests suffered minor injuries,'' confirmed V Australia spokesman Colin Lippiatt.

Mr Lippiatt said the aircraft did not sustain damage and described the turbulence as moderate.

''It's standard procedure that whenever an aircraft is entering turbulence that the captain would issue a public address asking people to sit down and buckle their seat belts,'' he said.

''My information is that is what happened in this instance. But as you could imagine, sometimes cabin crew are out doing their work and were not sitting at the time the turbulence hit.''

Flight VA20 landed at Melbourne Airport at 7.41am.

Paramedics team manager Jerome Peyton said a combination of food poisoning and turbulence made some passengers unwell.

''One passenger was suffering food poisoning and was vomiting as a result,'' said Mr Peyton.

''Others nearby also began to feel ill. At about the same time there was reportedly some turbulence experienced during the flight.

''Two flight crew suffered minor injuries as a result. We are told one struck their head, the other fell over and an airline trolley landed on them.

''We have assessed those people, and no one needs treatment. It shows that our emergency response plan works well.''

Guest: I would like a sandwich and a bottle of water
Flight Attendant: Would you like Salmonella with that? :D

and we're assuming the food poisoning was obtained on board rather than at a street-side pad thai vendor...?

I just read the Repcon section of the safety mag.

Seems there is one operator out there that allows the cabin crew to ignore the seat belt sign. The CASA response was that they want the operator to review the policy.

Is it Virgin that the reporter was talking about? If so, could it be a factor in this incident perhaps?

Quote:

The CASA response was that they want the operator to review the policy.

Policy reviewed as requested. CASA please get nicked - policy stays as is. :ok:

Quote:

Seems there is one operator out there that allows the cabin crew to ignore the seat belt sign

There is more than one jet operator that does this.

Flew Pac Blue to Fiji in Dec - seatbelt signs came on during cruise and was ignored by all. CC kept on going about their business and Pax continued to move around the cabin unchallenged. Not sure why the pilots bothered - luckily the turbulence was only light.
Is there perhaps and additional PA or warning if the TC think it could be worse? Otherwise it would seem observing the seatbelt sign is completely discretionary if VA have the same policy.:hmm:

Quote:

Seems there is one operator out there that allows the cabin crew to ignore the seat belt sign

Allows or requires that they do ? :hmm:

Phuket....Bali.... You haven't quite experienced those destinations unless you've had a good bout of the old D & V.....

The TV is suggesting "clear air turbulence", maybe, or maybe through the top of a Cumulus that didn't appear on radar Or as I often see the radar scale is such 300nm or so, and the cockpit lighting so bright that you wouldn't see it coming.

The 7pm project actually showed a bloke being interviewed that said words to the effect of:

'Yeah, no worries at all mate, not a problem, wasn't worried at all'

That interview didn't make it on the mainstream media............

Skynews............All too true mate. I've seen a few colleagues attempt the same thing until I "asked" them to adjust their ND....

so they hit severe turbulance north of jakarta yet continued across australia to melbourne, seems pretty bad

Quote:

ryanboxer so they hit severe turbulance north of jakarta yet continued across australia to melbourne, seems pretty bad

Actually, the turbulence encountered is described as "Moderate", rather than "Severe"

Quote:

Is there perhaps and additional PA or warning if the TC think it could be worse?

At VA (as in many airlines) the seat belt sign is to instruct PASSENGERS to be seated with the seat belts fastened. Cabin crew are allowed to continue their duties, but we will communicate over intercom whether restrictions to the service (such as hot beverages etc.) should be implemented. We also have SOP mandated PA calls if required, for CABIN CREW to be seated with seat belts fasted. The PA may include the word "Immediately", if time is of the essence in which case trolleys etc, will be jammed in place at nearest available location and Cabin Crew will take nearest available seat, which may not necessarily be the assigned Cabin Crew station.

As a note, QF require both pax AND crew to be seated whenever the seatbelt sign is on.

Extra PAs pretty much as described above.

No one said the food poisoning came from the onboard catering, let's not jump to conclusions.

Perhaps the food was 'rimmed' ?

Quote:

Perhaps the food was 'rimmed' ?

Yuk :} That's awful!