QANTAS Again

[Jared F]

Great find Rhys. I think some of these sensationalist journalists definitely have it in their favorites.

[Johannes C]

Well same things happened in Indonesia, people send mails to newspapers just to complain pilots talking to flight attendant in flight. He think that the pilot should concentrate on flying the plane, as it is endangering as talking to others while driving a car. So you can tell how stupid that assumption is. A plane that RTA because of "unusual noise" (which is just a loose hinge, CPA and other airlines often just take off ignoring it) gets a very bloody report news.

A friend of mine who is an Indonesian airline pilot that graduated from an Aussie flying school, told me that in Australia, people are more outrageous about aviation stuff... things are silly, such as if the pilots use speedbrakes, and airframe shakes (normally), passengers will complain as it is "dangerous" stuff in newspapers.

Talk about Garuda? I have "incident" on my flight from Denpasar last 4th August, the APU won't start so the pilot decided not to shut down one of the engines to supply power for the AC and electricity. It delayed us for about 30 minutes.

Well, everyone in aviation-savvy world knows that without APU the aircraft can still go, but i think they (the press) missed this one.

[Montague S]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/grou...139033327.html

bit more on the story that is VH-TJU.

[NickN]

TJU should be close to retirement, I can't see how much longer Qantas can keep running those old beaten up 734's.

[Marty H]

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/...014090,00.html

[Josh F]

Malaysian engineers defend Qantas record

MALAYSIAN Airlines has defended its maintenance of Qantas aircraft, saying experts from the Australian carrier signed off on all repairs.

A Qantas jet grounded in Melbourne yesterday because of noise from an air-conditioning fault was the same plane that returned from routine maintenance in Malaysia two months ago with 95 defects, News Ltd reported.

The Canberra-bound Boeing 737 jet returned to the terminal and passengers were transferred to another plane, finally leaving Melbourne 90 minutes later, just before 1pm (AEST) yesterday.

A Qantas spokeswoman said QF850 had problems with an air-conditioning duct unit while taxiing towards the runway.

The original faults on the aircraft included a galley that was so badly installed it was a fire risk and gave a flight attendant an electric shock, News Ltd reported.

But Malaysia Airlines senior general manager Mohammed Roslan Ismail said today Qantas had 12 personnel attached to its engineering and maintenance service in Malaysia.

"All the highlights were rectified, to the satisfaction of the Qantas team, before aircraft delivery to Australia," he said in a statement.

"With regards to the 'string of faults' that were reported in the media, (Malaysia Airlines) investigated and established that these were unsubstantiated.

"This is based on the fact that all these aspects were originally checked and found to be free from defect during the maintenance check and test flight, with the concurrence from the Qantas team."

He said in the case of the flight attendant being given an electric shock, Malaysian engineers had found the root cause of the problem.

"We are fully committed to executing all aspects of aircraft engineering maintenance with no compromise to safety and security, as well as meeting the expectations of both our customers and the global regulatory authorities that have recognised our competencies," he said.

AAP

[Robert Zweck]

Re some of the garbage I have seen in the press in recent days.....

Qantas would have a strong case for libelous and defamatory statements made against the airline, ( i.e statements that are either completely false OR convey a misleading notion )

I am glad there haven't been many go-arounds

[NickN]

Robert, I am not sure much of the stories have been INTENTIONALLY misleading, more bad journalism. I think the word "sensationalized" would be more accurate than false, misleading or otherwise.

[Andrew McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by NickN

I am not sure much of the stories have been INTENTIONALLY misleading, more bad journalism. I think the word "sensationalized" would be more accurate than false, misleading or otherwise.

Yeah, don't you just hate those "sensationalized" statements, just like this one...

Originally Posted by NickN

TJU should be close to retirement, I can't see how much longer Qantas can keep running those old beaten up 734's.

People in glass houses, Nick...

And just so you know Nick, TJU was first registered in 1994, making it only 14 years old....not quite what I would call "old beaten up".

[Raymond Rowe]

Originally Posted by NickN

Robert, I am not sure much of the stories have been INTENTIONALLY misleading, more bad journalism. I think the word "sensationalized" would be more accurate than false, misleading or otherwise.

Nick how much engineering experience do you have to come up with some of the things you have said.Or is it all armchair.