Jetstar birdstrike on 26 Oct - fact or fiction?

[Pete B.]

My family and I were booked on JQ204 from Auckland to Sydney at 1550 on Monday 26 Oct. Whilst waiting to check-in, Jetstar uniformed personnel advised that the flight was cancelled due to a birdstrike seriously damaging a Jetstar aircraft. We were told to ensure minimal disruption across the network our flight was subsequently cancelled. We were told that as luck would have it Qantas had heaps of seats on their services at 1540 and 1830 so no one would be left behind.

This worked out rather well as we flew on the new 738 ZK-ZQC with all the bells and whistles and QFF points for a dirt-cheap JQ fare. It was fantastic but that's another story.

Since returning home I have tried valiantly to find any report of this supposed birdstrike and am left wondering if it was made up and that Jetstar cancelled for other more financial reasons...

Can anyone add some light to this for me..?

[Chris Roope]

Originally Posted by Andrew

[FONT="Arial"]The fact that you would believe the service would be cancelled (keep in mind two sectors) due to some 'financial reason', defies belief...[FONT]

Why is that so hard to believe?
Assuming all the JQ pax on the return sector could also be accomodated on the QF flights then it would make perfect financial sense to send 2 full planes instead of 3 empty ones.

[Mike W]

^ Yeah, I thought it was a legitimate question as well. What's with the put-down?


If it was indeed a bird strike, how is it verified other than a poster on this thread saying...

The aircraft suffered a bird strike that rendered it unserviceable for the day

[Phil S]

Which port did the birdstrike occur at and what was the damage?

[James K]

Goodness me! So does JQ actually pay QF for those multitudes of pax they FIM to QF?

[Nathan Bartlett]

By the looks of it the aircraft was VH-VQD and looks like it happened in Queenstown arriving from Christchurch. The Aircraft didn't depart Queenstown until the next day as JQ278 to Auckland. So a birdstrike looks very possible.

[D Chan]

Originally Posted by Pete B.

Since returning home I have tried valiantly to find any report of this supposed birdstrike and am left wondering if it was made up and that Jetstar cancelled for other more financial reasons...

Many birdstrikes occur on a day to day basis than what is reported in the media, so it would not be surprising that you could not find a report. If you visit the ATSB website they do have weekly summary reports (with 3 weeks lag). Depending on where the bird hits it is indeed possible to render the aircraft u/s for more than a day if it was ingested into the engine.

As stated in previous posts deliberately canning a flight to reaccomodate pax to mainline would have impacts on JQ's operations, e.g. aircraft rotations and perhaps crew patterns. Base on this line of reasoning i don't see how they could have saved money by canning the flight. One has to also consider whether the carrier deliberately lies to its customers, again this is highly unlikely given the risks involved in deliberate misleading customers.

[Pete B.]

Thanks for the replies, even the heated ones.

Just to clarify, I have no reason not to believe Jetstar personnel. I just find it odd that the event didn't find it's way to any sensational-story-hungry media and also managed to slip past members of this board. You lot don't normally miss much, it almost defies belief!

Nathan, thanks for your info.