Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

08Dec QF74 incident: 'held hostage' by Qantas

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • 08Dec QF74 incident: 'held hostage' by Qantas

    Ha, made you look.

    I was a Premium Economy passenger on the heavily delayed QF74, scheduled for a departure from SFO on 08Dec but ultimately departing 22 hours later as QF8074. I would like to share my experience and some thoughts on QF's mostly competent handling of the situation.

    I boarded what seemed to be a routine QF departure to SYD, and was very much looking forward to being home after a month in San Francisco. My seatmate was a delightful chappie from Northern Ireland via seemingly everywhere on earth and an analyst specialising in the tech industry, so we had plenty to chat about. It is always nice to have a good seatmate on a long haul.

    Shortly after cabin doors were closed, the Auxiliary Power Unit of the aircraft failed, plunging the cabin into darkness, and the emergency lighting came on. We were told that departure would be delayed whilst the cockpit and engineers tried to address the issue. The aircraft was connected back to its ground power unit so that the air conditioning could come back on.

    From then on it was a rolling delay, as the APU continued to play up. When it became clear that the flight would be delayed much further, the cabin crew turned on the IFE and served refreshments. 30 minutes after the initial announcement, the CSM made a PA, giving an indepth explanation of the situation. Apparently the cockpit received a fire warning from the APU. It turned out to be a false alarm but as a precaution, the pilots activated an extinguisher, and fire engines came to check the plane out.

    About 90 minutes after scheduled departure, it was announced that the engineers are having issues closing some panel of the aircraft.

    3 hours after scheduled departure, the aircraft was finally ready to depart and we taxied out to the runway.

    But it wasn't to be... the captain made yet another PA informing us that we'd have to turn back to the terminal as they'd received yet another warning about the APU. So we taxied back to the gate, and the IFE was turned on yet again and more drinks were served.

    It was then announced that the aircraft needed a new part before we could depart. We'd been sitting on the tarmac all that time and it felt a little like a slumber party. The cabin crew were rather visible all this time, walking around the aircraft answering questions from concerned pax. One of the crew members was concerned that the crew were close to running out of hours. Apparently each crew can legally work for 20 hours; the scheduled flight time was 15 hours and we'd already been onboard for close to more than 4 hours.

    About 4.5 hours after departure, it was announced that the engineers were having some difficulty sourcing the required aircraft part that evening.

    By then the crew had run out of hours, and we were told that we'd have to disembark the aircraft and spend an additional night in the Bay Area. Ground staff were having trouble finding hotel rooms as their usual Hyatt for this sort of contingency was full. Those not requiring accomodation or transportation were free to leave anytime they like. I could go back to the company apartment in downtown San Francisco but the crew advised that it's better to stay close to the airport so that I was easily reachable. The CSM ushered pax off the plane by cabin, and we learn that we were going to spend the night in a Comfort Inn in San Mateo. I wasn't convinced that it was a better option than heading back to the apartment, but didn't want the hassle of claiming compensation for the taxi fare to downtown SF and back. My seatmate had no such hesitation, as he was supposed to be staying another night and his room at the InterContinental was paid for an extra night and was still available.

    We all had a letter from QF advising of the re-scheduled departure of 2030 the next evening (Sydney airport curfews factored into the retiming), and a number to call if we had any questions. We were also told to expect a call at around 5pm for a further update. After picking up our baggage, hotel shuttles were organised. We arrived at the Comfort Inn at 5am where there was a long queue to check in at the check in desk, where a sole check in clerk worked his arse off to get us all checked in asap.

    The Comfort Inn wasn't exactly flash, but had free wifi which was very handy. There was also free breakfast but as usual I slept in till it was too late. QF didn't organise any food vouchers, and the hotel staff had no information about it, but several pax had contacted QF and advised that QF will compensate any meal expenses incurred.

    A QF staff member called my room at approximately 4.30pm and advised that there will be a shuttle to the airport leaving at 5pm. One of the guys I met had a rental car and offered to drive several people to the airport, so a couple of us took him up on that offer. A camaraderie had developed between all us QF74 refugees by that stage, and we were all in good spirits despite the trying circumstances. Knowing you're not alone helps in this sort of situation.

    There was a massive queue at the check in counters when we got there, in stark contrast to how quiet the QF check in counters at SFO usually are, probably because a whole planeload of people were trying to check in at the same time. Caught up with my seatmate from last night at the check in queue. We were both upgraded to Business, which the check in agent said was a goodwill gesture. I also noticed that almost everyone else who had status were upgraded. Additionally, as a WP I was given a food voucher to spend at the airport. I donated my voucher to my seatmate as all the airport outlets looked extremely busy (he didn't redeem it though, for the same reason), heading straight to the BA lounge after a fellow pax on the now renumbered QF8074 took me up on my offer to host him as my lounge guest.

    The BA lounge was also rather busy, as there was a BA service to LHR which was departing shortly before our flight. It too was delayed, by an hour, and given the circumstances it was a little amusing hearing some of the BA pax complaining about their delay.

    Some of us QF refugees gathered by the juice bar in the J section as they were the only seats we could find in the crowded lounge, and promptly had a drinky poo from the selection of beverages on offer at the BA lounge. One of the guys noted that the media was interviewing some people at the check in counters, and apparently people have been feeding some rubbish to the media about smoke or flames coming out of the back of the plane which was totally untrue. By this time the Herald Sun and the Age were reporting about how we'd all somehow been held hostage without food or water on the tarmac for 7 hours - why let facts get in the way of a good story hey?

    QF8074 departed SFO and arrived at SYD as scheduled, with faultless onboard service even though I'd imagine that the crew were just as tired as we all were. One of the cabin crew quipped that everyone knew everyone else and it was all a bit like "going on a cruise." We were also given a form to fill in onboard, so that QF can call us over the next week to discuss compensation.

    In summary, kudos to the QF staff at SFO for handling a stressful situation rather well. Everyone I spoke to were rather happy with the way things were handled, and in particular, at how information was readily available. Even the call centre staff were briefed in order to provide updates on the situation. It was my first time experiencing a forced overnight due to an IRROP, and I have to say it felt a bit like an adventure, though of course I wouldn't like to experience another anytime soon!
    Last edited by KeithMEL; 11 December 2010, 09:35 AM.
    All opinions shared are my own, and are not necessarily those of my employer or any other organisation of which I'm affiliated to.

  • #2
    Interesting report indeed! thanks for posting this. Seems that Qantas' bad luck continues.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by SilverChris View Post
      Interesting report indeed! thanks for posting this. Seems that Qantas' bad luck continues.
      APU's do fail now and then, it's nothing to do with bad luck.

      Wonder how many airlines cancelled a flight this week?
      My SQ and flying Videos: Youtube My Travel Blog: AussieFlyer.net

      Comment


      • #4
        Yay - I'm glad they released you in the end without a ransom . Which is more than I can say for FARC and the boys hanging around in skiffs off the horn of africa.

        Comment


        • #5
          Hey buddy, glad you made it home safely. I know you love QF unconditionally, but you gotta admit, that airline is a MESS! Just how many "incidents" have they had in the past 2+ years?
          HUGE AL

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by HUGE AL View Post
            Hey buddy, glad you made it home safely. I know you love QF unconditionally, but you gotta admit, that airline is a MESS! Just how many "incidents" have they had in the past 2+ years?
            They do have a lot of work to do to address that perception.
            All opinions shared are my own, and are not necessarily those of my employer or any other organisation of which I'm affiliated to.

            Comment


            • #7
              I think even calling this an 'incident' is ridiculous. I have been 'plunged' into darkness with APU problems on an SQ 747 before, and have been on numerous other flights on various airlines that had APU problems.
              My SQ and flying Videos: Youtube My Travel Blog: AussieFlyer.net

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by sqdazz View Post
                I think even calling this an 'incident' is ridiculous. I have been 'plunged' into darkness with APU problems on an SQ 747 before, and have been on numerous other flights on various airlines that had APU problems.
                It only became an 'incident' as it wasn't a routine departure, like all other incidents, regardless of airline. Only some incidents are reported in the media, others aren't. The press focus here was on pax being held on the tarmac, hence my tongue-in-cheek thread title. And whilst there was good reason (the crew expected to depart in a jiffy given APU failures are usually easy to fix) for that it nonetheless showed up QF in a bad light and compounded their PR issues.

                I agree that an APU failure is hardly alarming or unusual. Last time an APU failure happened to me was on another QF 744, SIN-LHR bit of QF9. Quick fix and all was well, but took another 90 mins to depart due to ATC, something about congested airways over Afghanistan. That was in early 2008 and way before all the heightened media attention post-QF29, and I'd hardly consider it an 'incident' though no doubt it'd have been recorded in some technical log somewhere (can't remember URL). In this instance however, a whole lot of minor issues simply snowballed into a forced overnight.
                Last edited by KeithMEL; 11 December 2010, 02:58 PM.
                All opinions shared are my own, and are not necessarily those of my employer or any other organisation of which I'm affiliated to.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I disagree sorry, it's not an incident at all. It's a flight cancellation due to a mechanical fault and subsequent crew running out of hours. Simple as that.
                  My SQ and flying Videos: Youtube My Travel Blog: AussieFlyer.net

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by sqdazz View Post
                    I disagree sorry, it's not an incident at all. It's a flight cancellation due to a mechanical fault and subsequent crew running out of hours. Simple as that.
                    Feel better if it'd been called an 'occurrence' or an 'event' then?

                    In saying that, I believe the technically correct term is an 'irregular operation.'
                    All opinions shared are my own, and are not necessarily those of my employer or any other organisation of which I'm affiliated to.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Thank You KeithMEL .
                      It's nice hearing a first hand account on what actually happened rather than some co*k and bull

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X