V Aus bakes an engine in LA.

[David Ramsay]

Of course, DJ and NZ are best buddies now

Since NZ is in the same part of the world and has spare 744 capacity right now, it makes perfect sense to charter one.

[Mike W]

^ That's what I was referring to David

[Montague S]

who the hell is Kristy Carter?

[Andrew P]

Originally Posted by Daniel M

How was your romantic dinner last night with Andrew C?

see V Australia has amended the 1st line of the press release to take out the spin they had about the pilot and put a more realistic comment

maybe they read this board to see what the realists are saying

[Matt_L]

Originally Posted by Montague S

who the hell is Kristy Carter?

Channel 9 news reporter who was on the flight..

[Radi K]

Just to clear up a few things

Low speed reject rwy 25R
Take off power was set
The 350 pax on board statement was slightly exaggerated
A flame was observed from the left engine
There was NOT an engine failure - nor did the plane 'bake an engine'
GE are conducting tests still on the engine and some parts are being changed
A compressor stall and/or engine surge seems likely

Cheers

[Nigel C]

Meh...I preferred the dramatic version....

[Chris Q]

Originally Posted by Nigel C

Meh...I preferred the dramatic version....

Exactly!
no one would buy any newspapers or watch TT/ACA if that was the report!

[Ken M]

I was on this flight? Well for all of 10 seconds. The aircraft commenced it's take off run, less than 200m down the runway there was a loud 'thud' and the aircraft came to a halt. There was no explosion and no fire.

The captain told us there was an 'indication' on the flight deck and he aborted the take off as a precaution. The term 'surge' was used?

A flight attendant told be she saw a flash come from the left engine that she thought was the fire extinguisher going off.

After the fire tenders established there was no apparent damage we taxied to what I assume was the Virgin America maintenance ramp, where we were off loaded.

There was a certain amount of confusion regarding baggage collection and accommodation however all thing considered, I think V Australia did a great job.

We were squeezed on VA 2 the next night for medical reasons but were told that other wise we may have been held in LA up to 3 days whilst alternative flights were found.

Whilst waiting for the flight the next night I over heard other passengers complaining about the 'chaos' they'd experienced the night before, however I wondered if they would have preferred V Aus to be 100% on top of the situation because it happened regularly???? Personally I was glad they weren't because it means that it doesn't happen often.

This was my first major overseas flight and I would throughly recommend V Australia.

[Adrian B]

Ken,

Good post, but you may want to be careful about posting a comprehensive, direct, non imflamatory (no pun intended) nor non-exagerated description of what happened. Knowing that several of our uneducated media review this forum for anything they can turn into trash, they may report you to the admins for inappropriate posting