QF636 SAGA!! How do I ensure this gets looked at?

[Pushka]

Disgusting. Truly disgusting.

Red Roo - What's I'd like to know is, what should one do if something similar arises again?

Post here methinks! Red Roo picked this up very quickly, within a few minutes, thanks to a PM sent by a member here. We are very lucky. But I am thinking this was such an isolated and random event that it would never happen again.

 

[Daver6]

Post here methinks! Red Roo picked this up very quickly, within a few minutes, thanks to a PM sent by a member here. We are very lucky. But I am thinking this was such an isolated and random event that it would never happen again.

Pretty sure a post here at 2am from BNE wouldn't have been of much benefit to the OP.

 

[markis10]

But I am thinking this was such an isolated and random event that it would never happen again.

About two years ago I had a similar experience, arrived very late into Brisbane at 1 AM with no one to assist passengers who missed connections.

 

[Pushka]

Pretty sure a post here at 2am from BNE wouldn't have been of much benefit to the OP.

Who knows? obviously nothing else was working.

 

[The Mill]

I too have that awful sinking feeling in the stomach that is really a manifestation of the empathy that I feel for the OP and fellow passengers of QF636. Some woeful decisions seem to have been made by Qantas on the particular evening in question. What happened to the Qantas Crew onboard QF 636? Did nobody from the flight crew take any ownership of the situation when you were on the ground at OOL.....or is that where they felt their responsibility ended?

 

[MarkD]

Pretty poor form agreed.
I have read the whole thread and may have missed it, but, this plane the laps of Beaudesert, because it had sufficient reserves of fuel, and they left it there so long that it then had to divert itself due to fuel?
Sorry but ATC need a kick in the nuts as well. QF handled events poorly, but ATC caused the issue
Bloody pathetic

 

[nlagalle]

I too have that awful sinking feeling in the stomach that is really a manifestation of the empathy that I feel for the OP and fellow passengers of QF636. Some woeful decisions seem to have been made by Qantas on the particular evening in question. What happened to the Qantas Crew onboard QF 636? Did nobody from the flight crew take any ownership of the situation when you were on the ground at OOL.....or is that where they felt their responsibility ended?

I'm not sure what more the flight crew could do. If their instructions were to get them on a bus to BNE, what else could they do from there? The crew would also be tied up with matters relating to the aircraft. That is their priority. Ground staff are there to look after pax.

 

[brett-au]

I've fast forwarded through the thread after reading the first post. Not to defend anyone, but is this just a very simple case of the bus dropping everyone at the wrong terminal? If QF had told them to go to the international terminal they would have jumped in a taxi and gone.

 

[JessicaTam]

I've fast forwarded through the thread after reading the first post. Not to defend anyone, but is this just a very simple case of the bus dropping everyone at the wrong terminal? If QF had told them to go to the international terminal they would have jumped in a taxi and gone.

No.

10 chars

 

[bass_ke]

Glad to see an outcome has been reached!

Now if only the VFF rep stuck around like Red Roo....

 

[markis10]

I've fast forwarded through the thread after reading the first post. Not to defend anyone, but is this just a very simple case of the bus dropping everyone at the wrong terminal? If QF had told them to go to the international terminal they would have jumped in a taxi and gone.

Most of the taxis would be aware the airport is currently closed from midnight to five AM for runway works, not much point waiting at a terminal when there are no flights.

 

[UP4014]

Post here methinks! Red Roo picked this up very quickly, within a few minutes, thanks to a PM sent by a member here. We are very lucky. But I am thinking this was such an isolated and random event that it would never happen again.

It will happen again, stuff ups happen. Forgetting the diversion there will always be "humann factors" which mess thiings up. All you can do is rectify ASAP and hope the right people get the right information to make the right decisions.

Matt

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm not sure what more the flight crew could do. If their instructions were to get them on a bus to BNE, what else could they do from there? The crew would also be tied up with matters relating to the aircraft. That is their priority. Ground staff are there to look after pax.

Or not!

Personally, I think passengers are pretty high up on air crew's priority - but I agree that seeing them sent away on busses would probably satisfy them that things were in hand, albeit pretty rough.

 

[nlagalle]

Or not!

Personally, I think passengers are pretty high up on air crew's priority - but I agree that seeing them sent away on busses would probably satisfy them that things were in hand, albeit pretty rough.

OK explain what they would do then? They have landed at an airport which wasn't where they were supposed to. Should the crew just leave the plane there and jump on the bus too to make sure everyone got on it? Read the OP's story, as far as the flight crew knew, Qantas had arranged transport to BNE and transport from there. Should they just leave the aircraft (which if it is staying the night needs to be put to bed so to speak), and jump in the bus too? So tell me, what more could they do?

 

[Alco4301]

Agree Qantas at great fault. But in addition, the bus driver should not have dropped passengers at a closed terminal - the driver should have a duty of care to leave passengers at a safe destination (which might have been the city rail terminal or a 24hr hotel with access to transport & accommodation).

Having been involved with supplying buses for airlines at short notice you are required to do what is required by the customer (the airline) because if a airline passenger complains it may be the last job you get off the airline. In this case the driver as done as requested by the customer, sometimes the driver may be proactive and go the extra mile but it isn't a requirement.
On the last airline charter I was involved with I had to take a load of as senders off a Diverted Gold Coast flight from Brisbane to the GC. When I picked up at Brisbane the passengers should have arrived at the GC 3 hrs earlier and my anticipated arrival at the GC was going to be after midnight. Passengers began to ask about getting off before Coolangatta Airport and as there were a number asking I made a decision to stop at Nerang Railway Stn. I also had an elderly lady on board who was going to Mt Tamborine who wanted to contact her son so I gave her my mobile phone to use. Eventually we got to Coolangatta after the stop at Nerang and the pax were reasonably happy especially the elderly lady's son but I had three girls from Melbourne left who were on their first trip to the GC and had no idea on how to get to Surfers and their accommodation, so on my return to Brisbane I diverted via Sufers and dropped them off outside their accommodation and waited to make sure they could get in to the building (which they could). In the case of QF 636 did anyone ask the driver if it was possible to get dropped off in the city? Probably not, and if he did go into the city where would he go to he certainly couldn't make 50 different stops.
just my thoughts on the situation.

 

[RooFlyer]

OK explain what they would do then? They have landed at an airport which wasn't where they were supposed to. Should the crew just leave the plane there and jump on the bus too to make sure everyone got on it? Read the OP's story, as far as the flight crew knew, Qantas had arranged transport to BNE and transport from there. Should they just leave the aircraft (which if it is staying the night needs to be put to bed so to speak), and jump in the bus too? So tell me, what more could they do?

Whoa! Steady! Nick, I'm not suggesting that they should have done anything more. In fact, I gave the crew a bit of kudos for not just fixating on the plane, and in having some priority concern for the pax into the mix.

As I said - they saw them off on busses and that's a reasonable end of their particular concern. Of course if some-one wanted to check that the next leg of the saga was in hand (via the QF centre), that would have been a bonus, but would have been 'above and beyond'.

 

[Jaryd]

Hi Guys,

In the crew's defence, they were really really good to us. We were all asked if we needed cabs and they were going around taking notes whilst we were still on the aircraft. There were multiple PA calls (we were inside the plane on the tarmac for probably 90 minutes plus) which explained to us that we would be taken to Brisbane airport, where cabs would be waiting. So - there was no need in anyone's mind to ask the bus driver to take us into the city, as we would be jumping straight into cabs once we got to the airport.

And no one sent the bus driver away. After we got all of our hang luggage out from under the bus, we the walked the 2-300m to the cab rank. Once we got to the cab rank, the bus driver had already left, and it was only then that it really dawned on us that no cabs had been organised. Up until this point it had been very well organised.

 

[anat0l]

Hi Guys,

In the crew's defence, they were really really good to us. We were all asked if we needed cabs and they were going around taking notes whilst we were still on the aircraft. There were multiple PA calls (we were inside the plane on the tarmac for probably 90 minutes plus) which explained to us that we would be taken to Brisbane airport, where cabs would be waiting. So - there was no need in anyone's mind to ask the bus driver to take us into the city, as we would be jumping straight into cabs once we got to the airport.

And no one sent the bus driver away. After we got all of our hang luggage out from under the bus, we the walked the 2-300m to the cab rank. Once we got to the cab rank, the bus driver had already left, and it was only then that it really dawned on us that no cabs had been organised. Up until this point it had been very well organised.

I have to admit this paints a subtly different view on the events. From your recount, it seemed a colossal rag tag turn of events littered with poor reactivity and hopeless lack of coordination. That still doesn't make up for the lack of resolution until now, but so be it.

 

[Jaryd]

I have to admit this paints a subtly different view on the events. From your recount, it seemed a colossal rag tag turn of events littered with poor reactivity and hopeless lack of coordination. That still doesn't make up for the lack of resolution until now, but so be it.

No no - the captain and crew were good on the plane. I said that in the first post. We initially thought we were flying back, and then we weren't, and then we couldnt get off, and then we couldnt get our bags, and then we could get off, but they were communicating well - which I think counts as being organised in an unexpected situation. Basically they did as well as they could given the circumstances. I think it was as organised (or as well explained) as it could be.

Everything that went wrong, happened after we stepped off the plane and out of the crew's care (we were advised that everything was in place to get us home etc), and arrived at the airport (closed airport, no staff, no taxis, no cooperation, no bags, no explanation).

 

[rocketboy]

Disruptions to airline services are regular occurrences as we all know and many are beyond the company's control. The purpose of operational control centres is to resolve problems whenever they occur. In this case, there were certainly issues with BNE airport and ATC - but many other factors could have resulted in an unplanned diversion like this. The blame for this appalling outcome lies fairly and squarely with Operations Control. Poor decisions have compounded one upon another. If the Control Centre is under resourced or unable to deploy the appropriate ground response from other areas, then that's the responsibility of management.


And that any appropriate follow up to this occurred only because of an appeal through this forum - it makes me shudder!