Emergencies
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Qantas Crash Lands Boing 717 - $35 million lost From: TravelMole (www.travelmole.com) A $35 million Qantas jet is believed to have been written off after a "heavy landing" in Darwin. The Boeing 717 jet bumped down at Darwin airport on February 7 after flying from Cairns via Nhulunbuy. A report said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau had listed the incident on its air safety database and had described damage to the plane as "substantial". It said the Bureau reported the plane entered an area of "high sink", forcing it to land heavily, "wrinkling" the aircraft's fuselage. A Qantas spokesperson confirmed that the heavy landing had been reported and was under investigation. Qantas said it could not comment on whether the plane had been written off but said the aircraft was out of action. The QantasLink jet is one of 11 in the Territory's fleet of 717s, operated by NationalJet Systems. Three Qantas Jets Abort Takeoffs From: WorldNews (upge.wn.com) A wasp infestation was to blame for a spate of aborted take-offs from Brisbane, a report has said. A total of five Qantas airline flights were affected between in the last 18 months, with three of them forced to abort take-off... 6 Tires explodes on Qantas Singapore flight From: Air Safety Week An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report has found that a wasp infestation among Qantas aircraft at Brisbane Airport caused three flights to be aborted during takeoff. Wasp infestations at the airport particularly affected Qantas' Airbus A330 fleet, with the insects nesting in parts of the aircraft sitting idle on the tarmac. Between January and March, five Qantas flights were affected by wasps, with 3 takeoffs aborted due to the insects' impact on the airspeed indicators and air data systems. A March 19 flight, bound for Singapore, was aborted when the pilots noticed a major discrepancy in their airspeed readings. The pilot in control applied the brakes while the plane was traveling at 122 knots (226km/h). As the plane taxied off the runway the brakes reached a temperature of 685 degrees Celsius, causing six of the eight landing gear tires to deflate. A subsequent sweep of the airport in April last year found up to 30 wasp nests. Qantas crash landing: breaks nose wheeel - runs into Golf course in Bangkok From: ABC News Australis (more at: www.abc.net.au) Posted Oct. 2007 KERRY O'BRIEN: on 23 Sept, 1999, Qantas Airlines flight QF1 crashed on landing in Bangkok. Today the Bureau of Air Safety released its interim factual report on the incident and it provides uncomfortable reading for air travellers. It now appears the accident occurred through a combination of poor weather information, crew miscalculation and questionable flying procedures. Already former Civil Aviation chief Dick Smith has warned Qantas needs to look at the balance between profit and safety. KEVAN GOSPER, IOC VICE-PRESIDENT: I certainly heard, and I'm sure many others heard, the nose wheel snap and the front of the aircraft go down. At that point, the lights went out and there was violent shaking and I suddenly realised we were in very bad trouble. MARK BANNERMAN: It should have been a routine landing for Qantas flight QF1 that night at Bangkok airport, but a combination of factors that may yet include weather, human error and mechanic failure sent the massive jet crashing out over the end of the runway. Heather Rollo was a passenger that night, accompanied by her three children and her husband. She found herself at the centre of a nightmare. When the aircraft finally came to rest, passengers were forced to wait over 30 minutes before being allowed off the plane.Even if you get a reassuring message from the captain that the plane is not going to catch fire, with all of the systems down, and given the trauma of the incident, it seemed surprising to me he could be so sure that the plane was safe. HEATHER ROLLO: The lack of disaster planning by the crew was appalling, and I really think that the credit was due to the fare paying passengers. MARK BANNERMAN: In terms of marks out of 10, what would you give the cabin crew in the way that they treated you? HEATHER ROLLO: Probably three. Three for being there. MARK BANNERMAN: In every sense of the word, this has been a devastating blow to Qantas. So far the airline, though, has refused to call the landing an accident, preferring to use the term "incident", a stance that shocked IOC vice-president Kevan Gosper, a first-class passenger on the flight. KEVAN GOSPER: You put a big aircraft down what appeared to be late on the strip and lose the undercarriage, and seriously injure one of the engines and put it on an angle and fortunately end up in a golf course rather than in the water or into a building, my definition of that would be an accident. MARK BANNERMAN: For two months now the people who were on that flight have been asking themselves what it was that took them so close to death. They aren't the only ones. There is now an open question in the aviation industry that goes something like this: Has the commercialisation and privatisation of Qantas and the deregulation of the airline industry led to reduction in safety standards that may have set the scene for a crash like this? Today the Bureau of Air Safety went some way towards answering those questions, releasing its interim factual report on the crash. Tightly written, it lays out crucial details. The crew of QF1 were not aware that another Qantas plane had aborted a landing just minutes before it arrived to land. The crew did not use maximum wing flap settings that would have allowed it to land at a lower speed. While just above the ground, the captain commanded the first officer flying the plane to go around, opening the throttles again. The captain then changed his mind, took control of the throttles and brought them to idle for landing. It was a fateful decision. JOHN WOOD, CASA PILOTS COUNCIL: The immediate reaction is that they were very lucky it wasn't a much more serious accident. I think with the amount of damage that was done to the aircraft, it could have been much more serious Had there been a breach of any fuel or hydraulic lines, there could have been fire. It's a very severe wake-up call, I think, to Qantas. It may well be that when they got a sudden clearing of the weather he saw his opportunity to complete the landing without the complication of a go-around, but I think his first choice would have been the most prudent. Qantas can't make $600 million profit without reducing costs. I can assure you some of those costs have been taken off the money they spend on safety. There's no doubt about it. Qantas 747 emergency landing - Engine on Fire From: Sydney Morning Herald (more at: www.smh.com.au) Posted Jan, 17, 2006 A qantas jumbo jet with 316 passengers on board was forced to make an emergency landing at Sydney Airport yesterday after an engine caught fire and failed just moments after take-off.The flight, QF249, which was bound for Los Angeles, took off just after 3pm and was in the air for about 10 minutes when the pilot discovered a problem with one of the engines. A spokesman for Qantas, Lloyd Quartermain, said a fault in one of the engines may have produced flames. Mr Quartermain said the Boeing 747 was forced to circle over Sydney for at least one hour because it was carrying enough fuel to reach Los Angeles and needed to burn some more in order to land safely. Qantas 767 emergency landing - Engine on Fire From: Airliners (more at: www.airliners.net) Posted Jan. 11, 2005 A Qantas Boeing 767-336/ER was in a state of emergency after the ground tower noticed smoke from one of its engines at Kingsford Smith International in Sydney on December 28. The plane (call signal: VH-ZXA and cn 24337/288) required six trucks onsite. [note: photo taken by Glenn Steward]. 2 people stabbed in Qantas hijack attempt From: Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au) Posted May. 29, 2003 Two flight attendants were stabbed in the head and face when a man tried to force his way into the cockpit of a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Launceston this afternoon. A Melbourne ambulance official said that the two - a 38-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman - had sustained facial injuries from the passenger wielding two small wooden stakes. The injured pair have since been taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital where they are in a stable condition, Metropolitan Ambulance spokesman James Howe said. One passenger was also reported to have sustained minor lacerations and was treated on the scene by paramedics. Australian Federal Police said a 40-year-old man was detained shortly after the flight returned to Melbourne. Federal agent Stephen Cato said the man made his attempt to take control of the Qantas plane after it left Melbourne for Launceston today. "We believe he was trying to take over the plane," Agent Cato said. |
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| Not affilliated with Qantas airlines - in fact, they hate us |
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