QF 747 Grounded

[Dave Noble]

QANTAS yesterday grounded a 747 aircraft because a crucial piece of equipment needed urgent maintenance, leaving the plane's tail at risk of breaking away.

The airline confirmed that QF31, due to depart Sydney for London via Singapore, had been delayed because of "maintenance requirements associated with a horizontal stabiliser jack screw".

Full article at

Turmoil for Qantas as craft grounded - National - smh.com.au

also reported at http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,24178987-5014090,00.html

hmm, will people here be interested or just want to jump down the newspaper's throat for daring to report it

Dave

 

[straitman]

Full article at

Turmoil for Qantas as craft grounded - National - smh.com.au

also reported at Qantas plane grounded for screw maintenance | NEWS.com.au

hmm, will people here be interested or just want to jump down the newspaper's throat for daring to report it

Dave

Dave,

I'm sure people are interested however they sometimes get put off by the lack of perspective in a lot of these articles.

Both these articles seem to be more news and less sensationalism than a few of the others recently.

 

[Harpoon]

I look at it this way - it's still more dangerous driving a car than hopping on a QF jet. Nothing has changed. And until a QF jet crashes and kills people (touchwood it never happens), then my opinion won't change. it's just a shame that the media conveniently forget how dangerous driving a car is. How many "shame shame shame toyota/holden/ford" stories have we seen this year? None?

And perhaps its a GOOD thing that all these jets are being grounded and being reported on. Would anyone rather these things went un-noticed/covered up and ended up in disaster? I'd prefer QF to cop a bit of media flack so they continue to keep their standards high.

The oxygen bottle explosion was a freak accident, and fair enough to report on it, it was a serious incident. But that's the only reason the rest of these "incidents" are appearing on page 1. Unlucky timing perhaps? It still seems to me that these incidents are not linked at all and there is no trend here.

/yawn.... I'm over it.

 

[moa999]

And perhaps its a GOOD thing that all these jets are being grounded and being reported on. Would anyone rather these things went un-noticed/covered up and ended up in disaster? I'd prefer QF to cop a bit of media flack so they continue to keep their standards high.

I think its a good thing the planes are being grounded.
The media coverage... less good... I would not want Qantas not grounding planes in order to avoid adverse media coverage (which is happening with every issue, no matter how minor)

The LAMEs are also doing themselves a disservice by denigrating Qantas on this issue - it was the local sites that did most of the work on the 737s/747s and if they continue to hurt Qantas the more quickly they will find themselves out of a job.

 

[Flying Fox]

For me the key line was -

“Qantas found this through a routine check of our maintenance records,” said the spokesman.

This means that they actually check vs the Alakan Airlines incident where the company simply tried to save $ by arbitrarily changing their MD80 screw-jack service life from its previous life-span to something like 2.5x its life-span without any testing etc. (figures quoted are from memory so I'm open to correction)

At then end of the day, I still feel safe onboard a QF aircraft.

 

[Evan]

Lets also not forget the jack screw on a 747 is not a single unit like the MD?? that was the Alaska airlines incident.
One would assume QF taking a much closer look at records discovered that the LAME's had not done the required during the last C check or similar or maybe they require inspection more or less often and done when needed, not with a check.

Plant maintinance and guages and inspection functions i can tell you are really difficult to manage in a computer system and i am sure all you that are involved in such know what i mean.

E

 

[vitaminp]

A 747 (a -300 according to article, but the pic does show an A380, so not sure how accurate ) had an in-flight engine shutdown on the way to LA via NZ. Reported as faulty fuel flow regulator.

Article here

 

[moa999]

So that makes it two 747 issues this week
- a 747-400 with a tail screw
- a 747-300 with an engine shutdown

plus the 747-400 that remains in Manilla minus an oxygen cylinder and plus a hole (pprune suggests no spare hangers for a repair until Nov)

must be some serious scheduling pressure occuring

 

[NM]

So that makes it two 747 issues this week
- a 747-400 with a tail screw
- a 747-300 with an engine shutdown

Neither of these should require extended maintenance periods of repair. The 743 was reported as a faulty fuel flow regulator. The flight departed AKL about 20 hours late.

plus the 747-400 that remains in Manilla minus an oxygen cylinder and plus a hole (pprune suggests no spare hangers for a repair until Nov)

Now that one is going to take a little longer as the delivery lead time for aviation-certified gaffa tape and staples is considerable at this time.

 

[munitalP]

A 747 (a -300 according to article, but the pic does show an A380, so not sure how accurate ) had an in-flight engine shutdown on the way to LA via NZ. Reported as faulty fuel flow regulator.

Article here

well....

No fly zone ... Qantas grounded a quarter of its 737-400 fleet
on Tuesday, after finding discrepancies in their maintenance
records. Picture: C.Brinkmann

OK, this article sucks - sorry but it's true. Yes, the MD80's tail did break off, only though after it hit the deck at over 300km per hour - I suspect, and not being an expert in this field, that any fault on an aircraft including blown toilet light bulbs would cause the tail to break off if the blowing bulbs caused the pilots to crash the jet into the ground at full speed....hmmmm

Also, the above picture is the largest 737-400 I have seen! I suspect the article was making reference to the 747-300 - if so, this is the biggest 747-300 I have ever seen....hmmmm

In the olden days, reporters (if they were around) would have been drawn and quartered with their body parts scattered over 4 corners of the country for articles like this.... (hey - if they have a poetic license, I should be able to have one too..)


Mr!

 

[Happy Dude]

I look at it this way - it's still more dangerous driving a car than hopping on a QF jet. Nothing has changed. And until a QF jet crashes and kills people (touchwood it never happens), then my opinion won't change. it's just a shame that the media conveniently forget how dangerous driving a car is. How many "shame shame shame toyota/holden/ford" stories have we seen this year? None?

I don't believe the media conveniently forget this at all. The media (all too) regularly report on car accidents and constantly remind us of annual road death tallies. However, it ain't toyota/holden/ford that cause car accidents, it's bad driving.

It's worth noting that we don't see too many stories naming and shaming bee-keepers even though there's statistically a greater chance of death by bee sting than by plane crash.

 

[NM]

I am waiting to read the report of the Qantas jet that might have careered off the end of the runway if the worn out break pads had not been replaced following a routing maintenance check. Or the QF aircraft that could have plummeted from the sky if the refuellers had not loaded the correct amount of fuel during a routine stop at SIN.

 

[Harpoon]

I don't believe the media conveniently forget this at all. The media (all too) regularly report on car accidents and constantly remind us of annual road death tallies. However, it ain't toyota/holden/ford that cause car accidents, it's bad driving.

It's worth noting that we don't see too many stories naming and shaming bee-keepers even though there's statistically a greater chance of death by bee sting than by plane crash.

Yeah I know but I was more just wanting to make the point they spend 11 seconds on "Another horror smash on the Hume Highway...and moving on to our next story" then follow that with a 5 minute probe in to a 737 that missed it's approach in to Adelaide in fog - followed by a 15 minute segment on today tonight.

Completely out of balance for headlines obviously. And I wonder how long the press will stick with this QF stuff for until 'people' get sick of it. Similar to fuel price reporting. yes it's an issue but people still get sick of the rubbish headlines after a while.

 

[oz_mark]

hmm, will people here be interested or just want to jump down the newspaper's throat for daring to report it

The issue is a lack of perspective between what is just normal ops versus what is really newsworthy. Some of the recent articles have been newsworthy, others are just reporting normal day to day stuff that happens everywhere.

 

[Dave Noble]

Completely out of balance for headlines obviously. And I wonder how long the press will stick with this QF stuff for until 'people' get sick of it. Similar to fuel price reporting. yes it's an issue but people still get sick of the rubbish headlines after a while.

Why? if the station did not think that it would interest people then they would cut back to the same as a car crash. The broadcasters are probably in a better position in deciding what will keep viewers than people unrelated to it. They are there to entertain and keep viewers and so focus more on what they figure may be of more interest

Here it seems to now be the case of trying to find what to nitpick in articles/broadcasts. As an example, the webpage may show an A380 but it is purely there as a visual and there is nothing in photo that suggests that it is the aircraft in question for example. It is just a photo of an aeroplane to go with the text since these days providing visuals to go with text is viewed as the way to go

Dave

 

[Flashback]

Why? if the station did not think that it would interest people then they would cut back to the same as a car crash. The broadcasters are probably in a better position in deciding what will keep viewers than people unrelated to it. They are there to entertain and keep viewers and so focus more on what they figure may be of more interest

Here it seems to now be the case of trying to find what to nitpick in articles/broadcasts. As an example, the webpage may show an A380 but it is purely there as a visual and there is nothing in photo that suggests that it is the aircraft in question for example. It is just a photo of an aeroplane to go with the text since these days providing visuals to go with text is viewed as the way to go

Dave

You stole the words out of my mouth Dave Noble, if you go and look at any article on ninemsn.com.au for example, I'll bet your bottom dollar 90% of them all have generic photos not directly related to the article.

 

[maninblack]

Landing at SYD on 16L yesterday the pilot hit the brakes a bit hard I reckon and the plane jerked somewhat, I heard a clunk in the overhead locker. The guy behind me opened it at the gate and a bubble-wrapped bottle of wine fell out narrowly missing my head and another passenger.

I was going to report it to the papers.

"Head injuries narrowly averted after by fast thinking passenger after out of control Qantas jet lands dangerously at Sydney airport."

By the way the aircraft was a Boeing A330-400!

 

[Flashback]

Landing at SYD on 16L yesterday the pilot hit the brakes a bit hard I reckon and the plane jerked somewhat, I heard a clunk in the overhead locker. The guy behind me opened it at the gate and a bubble-wrapped bottle of wine fell out narrowly missing my head and another passenger.

I was going to report it to the papers.

"Head injuries narrowly averted after by fast thinking passenger after out of control Qantas jet lands dangerously at Sydney airport."

By the way the aircraft was a Boeing A330-400!

I'm sorry, but I think you're being completely irrational here. Do you also remember the announcement at the start of the flight that overhead luggage has the tendency to move during flight and caution should be exercised when opening bins at all times? How is this news? It's not. :evil:

 

[vitaminp]

Well, in this case the photo shows an A380, and the caption refers to 747's. A reasonable inference is that the a/c shown is a 747, which is incorrect. It may well be nitpicking, but it highlights the sloppy approach to journalism that seems to have become the norm in Australia. Journos (and their publications) are supposed to be fact finders/checkers and reporters, so I don't think it's too much to ask that the reports and publications are accurate.

 

[oz_mark]

Well, in this case the photo shows an A380, and the caption refers to 747's. A reasonable inference is that the a/c shown is a 747, which is incorrect. It may well be nitpicking, but it highlights the sloppy approach to journalism that seems to have become the norm in Australia. Journos (and their publications) are supposed to be fact finders/checkers and reporters, so I don't think it's too much to ask that the reports and publications are accurate.

While accepting that story selection is based on what sells papers, rather than what is really newsworthy, given the high standards that journo's and editors seem to hold the rest of the world to, then I agree that we should expect better from them.