The Qantas Anni Horribilis Master Thread

[Kyo]

And overnight, we have a body panel falling off... here

Unbelievable.

A small body panel has fallen off a Qantas Jumbo jet on its way to Singapore from Melbourne.


A spokeswoman for Qantas says routine checks on the Boeing 747 after it arrived at Singapore's Changi Airport early Friday morning found that a small engine access panel had become detached.


"It had absolutely no flight safety implications," the spokeswoman said.
The access panel, which was "non-structural", was replaced and the flight continued to London after a delay of just under six hours.


The incident is the latest in a series of aircraft problems for Qantas. On Friday morning, a Qantas flight from Brisbane to Melbourne was delayed by more than half an hour because of a technical problem.


On Wednesday night, a Qantas Boeing 767 experienced a hydraulic failure which affected the plane's steering as it landed at Sydney airport.


The plane left a trail of hydraulic fluid as it touched down on its way from Melbourne, forcing the closure of the runway for 40 minutes while the spill was mopped up.


Last month, an explosion ripped a hole in the fuselage of a Qantas jet en route from Hong Kong to Melbourne, forcing an emergency landing at Manila.

[flyguy]

SQ have 4 incidents in a month - a few mths back - all on its 77Ws and a 772 (depressurisation) - and got away with it. Believed 2 of the 77Ws actually involved an engine-inflight shut down.

[KeithMEL]

That flight sounds suspiciously like QF009.

SQ have 4 incidents in a month - a few mths back - all on its 77Ws and a 772 (depressurisation) - and got away with it. Believed 2 of the 77Ws actually involved an engine-inflight shut down.

It is true that the media and the general public tend to hold Qantas to a higher standard and greater scrutiny, as they do, even if implicitly, market themselves on their safety record. So in a way they do bring it upon themselves, as unfair as that might sound. And compounded by the QF30 incident which was rightly viewed as a rather serious (newsworthy) incident.

[LukeGT]

Un avion de Qantas a perdu un morceau du fuselage pendant un vol à destination de Singapour, a annoncé vendredi la première compagnie aérienne australienne.

I have no words for what is happening

[jjpb3]

I have no words for what is happening

The article quoted in post #5 has a few . Unless this is another incident altogether?

[G_G]

People will be quick to forget QF has never had a plane crash when all they can think about in recent history is four problems in a month, including the unfortunate massive hole in the hull of the aircraft on the 25th of July. It takes ages to develop a reputation, but only an instant for it to break into pieces.

September 23, 1999, at Bangkok's Dom Muang International Airport


Because Qantas has repaired his bird, statistics could not take this as a lost airplane.

[Kyo]

Qantas overran the runway during a thunderstorm... some say the nosewheel gave way... Regardless, the official 'story' used by Qantas is they've never lost an aircraft... to be fair, I googled, but their 'safety' record in the modern era (since the 1950s) = no fatalities. Again, this was one of the noteworthy things I researched 3-4 years ago during uni.

[Nick C]

SQ have 4 incidents in a month - a few mths back - all on its 77Ws and a 772 (depressurisation) - and got away with it. Believed 2 of the 77Ws actually involved an engine-inflight shut down.

The 77Ws diversions were mainly due to problems with the GE90-115B engines. The root of the problem stemmed from the transfer gearbox which had a higher wear rate than normal due to resonance at certain operating ranges (a bit of physics here )

[up and away]

I don't know but somehow all of this doesn't sound like coincidence to me anymore.

Probably QF should take a good look at the people who had mx acces to the faulty planes- usually such stuff doesn't just happen. (I'm not counting the 737 gear door as a real incident though, this rather seems like nothing!


@the SQ problems: At the same time other airlines (I remember AF) also had problems with their GE driven 777s. The QF problems on the other hand are isolated to this carrier and there are other candidates who would be as likely to have problems with their planes based on their age and the miles they have accumulated!

[KeithMEL]

Unscheduled toilet stop for Qantas jet

Don't know whether to laugh or cry at this one.

As amusing as the incident is though, the tone of the delivery of this report and lumping it in with the QF30 incident shows how lacking in perspective some journos are!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/to...911468165.html

THE run of bad luck afflicting Qantas took a graphic turn last night when a fully loaded 767 flying from Sydney to Perth was forced to stage an unplanned landing in Adelaide so its toilets could be emptied.


Flight staff on QF571 told passengers that Sydney ground staff had forgotten to empty the toilets on the 737-300, which originated in Honolulu.


By the time the flight had been in the air for an hour, three of the toilets had ceased to function.

[Kyo]

Not fun I'm sure for the pax on the plane... but this I find actually quite hilarious.

I wonder why they skipped over checking / emptying the plane's septic systems this round. Of all airlines to happen to, of course, Qantas. Pity really. They will face a monumental effort to get the sheer amount of mishaps out of the public's consciousness if this keeps up.

[Nick C]

The editors can't decide if Qantas flies the 737-300 or the 767

[scooby5]

Add this to the Engine Cover coming off a flight to Singapore a day or so ago and Qantas are going through a spate of bad publicity at the moment.

I think i already ran out of fingers on one hand.

[scooby5]

The 77Ws diversions were mainly due to problems with the GE90-115B engines. The root of the problem stemmed from the transfer gearbox which had a higher wear rate than normal due to resonance at certain operating ranges (a bit of physics here )

Can you take a tip from the Mythbusters and say at the beginning:

"Warning, Science Content"

The last thing i need is surprised by physics content during a lunch break

Having said that most airlines do have issues along these lines and if any other had had an incident similar to the Manila one then we could be hearing these slightly more "minor" ones as well for a while.

[KeithMEL]

3rd hand anecdotal evidence, but apparently the flight deck had considered ditching the aircraft...

http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/comm...tml#post185049