QF1 - a long flight with no water!

[rocketboy]

Thanks markis10 for confirming the rego number of the aircraft. I can only add that I am very disappointed. It was inconvenient on my flight but I understand technical problems happen. But that aircraft was in Sydney for at least 10 hours and not fixed properly! Not very reassuring and unfair to Princess Fiona and the other passengers inconvenienced on the following service. And given the length of the flight segments this aircraft is operating, I think it is even more disgraceful.

 

[jetlagger]

Re: General Qantas Delays/Cancellations/etc. Discussion

Seems a very sad state of plumbing affairs..

 

[Pollywaffle]

No water on QF1.
Just got off QF1 in DXB and it was a bit of a nightmare
Late leaving SYD 18:15 due to technical problems ( water not working). After first meal service the water failed completely.
Nightmare for the crew, flushing toilets with bottles of Mount Franklin.
No second meal service due to no water in galley.
I was in J but can only imagine what it must have been like down the back of the bus.
On arrival in DXB bottles of water were provided and vouchers being handed out to Y transit passengers for food.
I'm safely in the EK F Lounge and the next flight is supposed to depart at 04:50 if they manage to fix the problem.
Does anyone know if there is any Qantas service desk in DXB?
I have a flight to GLA on BA separate ticket which I won't make and wondered if the QF staff could help me to re-book it now?

It sounds dreadful.

Hopefully everyone is suitably compensated.

 

[Pinkmoose]

I really feel for all the passengers of this flight, with no water or meal service. I hope you are very well compensated for your troubles.

I'm guessing for some passengers it was a good opportunity to drink whiskey/gin/bourbon etc, as you needed to conserve water on the flight?

 

[jetlagger]

It sounds dreadful.

Hopefully everyone is suitably compensated.

Each passenger is compensated with annual supply of Mt Franklin water.. Oh.. Evian for the Forward Cabins..

 

[Chesty]

I was on this flight travelling in F. It was indeed Charles Kingsford Smith and it was in engineering all day, hence the 2hr delayed departure. I heard flight attendants discussing the need to load an extra 75 bottles of water prior to take off so I believe they were not convinced the issue was resolved.

i feel for the folks at the back of the plane. The worst I had of it was no tea or coffee and we had an attendant at the toilets ready to offer bottled water to wash our hands.


The captain said it was the worst day at the office for him at Qantas. I can see why....

 

[phily]

I see that QF1 VH-OQF is back in the air, having been at DBX for 3 hrs (usually 90 mins), so I trust that the water problem was solved there.

Princess Fiona or Chesty, please let us know how the rest of the flight went, and what sort of compensation they eventually offer you.

 

[jetlagger]

I was on this flight travelling in F. It was indeed Charles Kingsford Smith and it was in engineering all day, hence the 2hr delayed departure. I heard flight attendants discussing the need to load an extra 75 bottles of water prior to take off so I believe they were not convinced the issue was resolved.

i feel for the folks at the back of the plane. The worst I had of it was no tea or coffee and we had an attendant at the toilets ready to offer bottled water to wash our hands.


The captain said it was the worst day at the office for him at Qantas. I can see why....

Would have been better to load Shane Jacobson on board as well..

 

[anat0l]

I'm not sure QF will offer any compensation for this, unless people speak up loudly about it.

Princess Fiona did say that upon arrival in DXB, Y pax were offered bottles of water and food (in lieu of the second meal service). Not necessarily sufficient, but if anything I think some pax would have actually needed that clean water offered to survive.

I'd like to think too that if the crew of the plane were not confident they could sustain adequate water demands all the way to DXB, the most prudent thing to do would be to ground the aircraft and get another one, or rebook everyone on the same plane.

Not having a reliable source of water going all the way is not only a risk to people's comfort - people can easily die or suffer severe illnesses due to lack of water intake on what is a very dry environment. I'm amazed if Qantas thinks that they have dodged a bullet and not have reflected with some sizeable concern on the ramifications and potential consequences of this incident.

 

[cove]

We are all reading along. So if anyone thought re-setting the IFE several times or the champagne was not cold enough you realize how minor those things really are.
Often I think the Qantas directors should be sampling the product in every class of travel that the group offers.

 

[Chesty]

I see that QF1 VH-OQF is back in the air, having been at DBX for 3 hrs (usually 90 mins), so I trust that the water problem was solved there.

Princess Fiona or Chesty, please let us know how the rest of the flight went, and what sort of compensation they eventually offer you.

I did not carry on to London ( thank god) but they did offer Y pax meal vouchers in lieu of the second meal service. My wife and I were the first two people off the aircraft and there was a scrum of staff waiting at the bridge, along with a table of water.

All the staff were very embarrassed by the situation. The customer service manager went to great lengths to apologise. No knowing the full issue, in hindsight they should have never left Sydney knowing the scale of the problem.

It annoys me that the aircraft was in maintenance all day getting this problem fixed and they still stuffed it. Worth adding that part of the delay was faulty IFE just prior to leaving the gate which also caused a delay.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

was there any explanation why the plane didn't divert? (apologies if I missed that)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not having a reliable source of water going all the way is not only a risk to people's comfort - people can easily die or suffer severe illnesses due to lack of water intake on what is a very dry environment. I'm amazed if Qantas thinks that they have dodged a bullet and not have reflected with some sizeable concern on the ramifications and potential consequences of this incident.

there is no doubt they had sufficient supplies of water or other soft drinks. otherwise the plane would have diverted immediately.

the bigger concern is sanitary conditions.

 

[under the radar]

just another example of QF management decisions...of profit over schedule.. leave the front line staff to deal with the issues/abuse...i'm sure all will be forgiven by the staff who cop this xx_x ...with the standard 'thankyou for your excellent work during your recent disruptions on QF XX' letter given to staff... i have receieved many over my 23yrs as an f/a... not worth the paper it's written on after a few times!!!!

 

[lovestotravel]

Yep I am sure they had heaps of drinking water/bottles of water kept away for drinking and then had another supply to wash people hands

Surely a few bottles of hand sanitizer would be a much better option though ?

As for toilets I wasn't aware they really used much water to flush on the A380, just a trickle yes ?

I also thought that there would be more than one water pump/system to avoid something like this happen

 

[Chesty]

was there any explanation why the plane didn't divert? (apologies if I missed that)

There was never any mention of the plane diverting. As I mentioned, they loaded extra bottles of water on. Clearly " just in case". Was a wise move as it turned out.

At least supplies of Tattinger were sufficient....

 

[MEL_Traveller]

As for toilets I wasn't aware they really used much water to flush on the A380, just a trickle yes ?

according to that article on the longest 747 flight (the qf ferry LHR-SYD) the flush for the WC was 180ml! guess the a380 would be similar?

 

[dfcatch]

I am led to understand that it was 11 hours without water.

I do feel for the crew - not just for the obvious reasons - but the pre-departure delay makes it a long shift for them even without on-board problems.

I am also confident that QF would not have departed the flight (and nor would the PIC taken it) if they did not believe the problem was fixed.

That said - the suspicion on their part that it wasn't (by taking extra water) indicates that this flight will no doubt be quite expensive for QF.

But nonetheless - cancelling and rebooking may have been more expensive than compensation.....

 

[Pushka]

Yep I am sure they had heaps of drinking water/bottles of water kept away for drinking and then had another supply to wash people hands

Surely a few bottles of hand sanitizer would be a much better option though ?

As for toilets I wasn't aware they really used much water to flush on the A380, just a trickle yes ?

I also thought that there would be more than one water pump/system to avoid something like this happen

Hand sanitisers don't kill as many bugs as soap and water.

 

[Melburnian1]

The Wednesday 18 September 2013 QF1 to which the OP referred departed SYD 137 minutes late at 1805, arriving DXB at 0222 - 107' late.

It then departed DXB at 0531, 206 minutes late after the indicated extended stop. It has not long arrived at LHR at 0955 local time, 200 minutes late compared with the 0635 timetabled arrival, as the OP may shortly confirm (although she was not a through passenger to LHR on QF).

It would be good if RedRoo would confirm that every passenger will receive compensation of some sort (presumably the 'higher status' one is, the more one might receive - for example if TonyHancock was on board, he'd receive more than most).

It would be interesting to know from a technical viewpoint how easy it would be for engineers to find the 'source' of the problem (such as a blockage in a line) and repair it. Presumably access is quite involved and does not just take five minutes.

The QF website suggests that both QF2 and QF10 ex LHR tonight (Thursday 19 September) are operating normally so let's hope that for the sake of health and hygiene that the engineers can fix the problem. There would be zero chance that it went unreported by the crew.