SQ321 13 March 2010: disturbing noise from A380 emex

[boing]

Was the a/c SKD ?

[sabian]

I forgot to note the a/c's rego.

[boing]

Well I asked because I heard recently that an A380 flight from LHR experienced a door unlocked msg on the ECAM as it entered the runway for takeoff and came back to the bay for inspection by the engineers before it took off for SIN.
In any case, the A380 would not pressurise the a/c if it detects any of the door is in the unlocked position. It's a built in safety mechanism.
And I would strongly encourage you to write in a letter of complaint regarding this issue as it pretty much destroyed your experience on that flight. But rest assured, don't let this mar your experience of a wonderful aircraft.

[sabian]

I don't think it was my flight as we took off without a hitch (at least for the first 20 mins).

But if you info is correct, it means that this is a recurring problem on this particular bird?

I gotta agree that it'd have been my best Y flight, the initial part of the flight brought a smile to my face and I was cooing and waxing lyrical on the buttery smooth take off and real quiet cabin. (I do at least 24 flights on A320s, so any improvement in the cabin noise/ rattling is rather obvious)

I have written in via the KF feedback form. We will see how it goes with the beanies.

[sabian]

Does anyone know how long SQ takes to reply on a complain? (excluding the instant bot response and the boilerplate "we are looking into it" that is sent 3 days later)

[Nick C]

Does anyone know how long SQ takes to reply on a complain? (excluding the instant bot response and the boilerplate "we are looking into it" that is sent 3 days later)

less than 24 hours from experience.

[soarbeyond]

This reminded me of a recent flight that i took on the 80.I was seated at the emergency exit row(81A/C) and through out the whole ascend & descend,the door kept making creaking noises.I asked the FA seated across me what was the noise and she just gave me a shrug and puzzled look

[sabian]

less than 24 hours from experience.

24hrs??!!

Ok. My complain was forwarded to them on 17/3.

I received the bot response almost immediately and the 2nd email was the standard 3 day response acknowledgement.

Let's see when the non-AI response comes in.

Does PPS status matter?

[sabian]

This reminded me of a recent flight that i took on the 80.I was seated at the emergency exit row(81A/C) and through out the whole ascend & descend,the door kept making creaking noises.I asked the FA seated across me what was the noise and she just gave me a shrug and puzzled look

Ok, I am starting to think that this is an ongoing problem.

But you did not have that siren/ alarm or the 11 hour hairdryer experience?

[sabian]

VIA EMAIL

Email : sabian@yahoo.com

Mr Sabian

23 March 2010

100303399/CR/LZ

Dear Mr Sabian

SQ321 / 13 March 2010 / London – Singapore

Further to my interim email to you on 19 March, thank you for bearing with
us while the investigations were ongoing.

May I firstly assure you that at no stage during the flight was the safety
of our passengers compromised. Our doors come equipped with the Door Service Information Panel (DSIP) system which would indicate clearly to our cabin crew or technical crew of the existence of any threat to cabin safety.

In addition, our cockpit has an alert system to notify our technical crew of the same. Checks on both systems done during the flight itself did not reveal any problems with the integrity of the cabin door. The technical crew had also
informed us that the microswitches responsible for holding the door in place
were securely locked at all times.

Based on the video that you had provided, having checked with the relevant
departments, the audio noise stemmed from the aerodynamic sound of air
travelling through a cover plate externally, that is, outside the door
itself.

Although this does not in any way affect cabin safety, in view of the noise generated, our crew had offered to relocate some of the passengers seated
near the door to other seats, but we understand that the passengers who were approached had respectfully declined. Also to reduce the noise, as you
observed, blankets were used to cover the door, but we sincerely apologise
that it did not do much to lessen the impact.

We also apologise that there had been no announcement nor attempt by the
pilots and cabin crew to explain the situation. We have already relayed to the
technical and cabin crew of the flight via their respective managers-in-charge
of the importance of keeping our passengers reassured of actions taken against any anomalies onboard the aircraft.

The cover plate problem has since been rectified on the ground, but our
engineers are also in full ongoing discussions with Airbus on the appropriate
preventive measures to ensure that such incidents do not recur as we
certainly do not want to cause our passengers unneccessary alarm, nor disrupt their inflight experience.

At this juncture, I would like to take this opportunity to assure you Mr
Sabian, that the safety of our passengers is paramount above all else, and our
Captain and his technical crew will not hesitate to perform the necessary diversion of the aircraft if at any point they find that the safety of our passengers is being compromised.

Thank you for this opportunity for us to investigate and respond to your feedback, and we hope to welcome Mrs Sabian and yourself onboard our flights in future, under more pleasant circumstances.

Yours sincerely

DMT
Customer Affairs Manager

[sabian]

Mystery solved. That's all, folks?

Gotta loved the way they sidestepped the 11hr worth of noise. Seat change will not going to make the noise go away and folks in front (upper Y) were turning their heads at the annoyance during the flight.

[a340-313x]

This reminded me of a recent flight that i took on the 80.I was seated at the emergency exit row(81A/C) and through out the whole ascend & descend,the door kept making creaking noises.I asked the FA seated across me what was the noise and she just gave me a shrug and puzzled look

The A380 tends to have creaking noises on the initial climbout after takeoff. I have experienced this each time I've been on the A380, including a ride on the (then) brand-new 9V-SKF. The crew seated at U3R did turn her head slightly but did not otherwise display any noticeable surprise or shock. I guess it must be normal. The creaking noises sound like the overhead bins not screwed tight in their positions.

[soarbeyond]

Nope no alarm just that horribly loud creaking sound that really irritated me(ok more of like it worried me )

[sabian]

Nope no alarm just that horribly loud creaking sound that really irritated me(ok more of like it worried me )

Actually, until that episode, there was no creaking sound from the overhead storage. I was all smiles until that episode started.

[cscs1956]

Would certainly write to SQ about this, certainly won't do any harm. Whilst I side with Kyo in that this would freak me out, I'm sure that the flight wouldn't have progressed if there was any real danger to pax/crew, so it would be a case of pressing for inconvenience related compensation. Imagine paying extra for the exit row preferred seats, only to spend 10 hours listening to that!

Hope that is resolved soon.