QF1 - a long flight with no water!

[Pushka]

And plumbers charge as if they'd expect travel in F.

 

[jetlagger]

And plumbers charge as if they'd expect travel in F.

'Call out fee" wasn't sufficient enough & oh.. they were on their break..

 

[Kefci2000]

The aircraft was fixed in DXB, I'll post more later as I'm getting on my connecting flight to GLA.
No issues with the water supply on the DXB-LHR sector.

Glad to see you have sorted out connecting flight.

Only problem last week at DXB was computer system went down and they double booked 4 on 11-13 in J

unfortunately I got on plane early as the other 4 got put in F for the DXB-LHR leg (QF9)

delayed the plane for well over an hour, but nothing like you drama,s (just a longer car ride to hotel due to increased traffic at 7am rather than 6 am

 

[RooFlyer]

Hand sanitisers don't kill germs, the alcohol removes the oil layer, just check with the FDA:

FDA: Hand Sanitizers Make False Claims

Are we talking about the same product? I'm talking about that alcohol based transparent gel where you pour a bit on your hands, rub them together then the stuff evaporates off. So where does the oil layer (and presumably, the germs) go? If it "removes" the oil layer, maybe it evaporates with the alcohol (no). More likely, the oil layer gets mobilized, but then reposes back on the hands, not removed but contact with the alcohols kills a proportion of the little blighters.

BTW the article quoted says this (my emphasis):


An FDA spokesperson tells WebMD that consumers should continue to follow CDC advice to use hand sanitizers when water is not available.

The CDC advice specifically says alcohol-based hand sanitizers help protect against MRSA and other germs. During flu season, the CDC continually warns Americans to prevent flu by using hand sanitizers when soap and water aren't around.

...

Here's the bottom line: Don't count on hand sanitizers for 100% protection from anything. Do wash your hands often. And when you can't wash your hands, do use hand sanitizers. Even the FDA agrees they get rid of a lot of the germs that are on your hands.

Conclusion: If there isn't enough water available for washing your hands, hand sanitisers aren't a bad substitute.

 

[jetlagger]

Are we talking about the same product? I'm talking about that alcohol based transparent gel where you pour a bit on your hands, rub them together then the stuff evaporates off. So where does the oil layer (and presumably, the germs) go? If it "removes" the oil layer, maybe it evaporates with the alcohol (no). More likely, the oil layer gets mobilized, but then reposes back on the hands, not removed but contact with the alcohols kills a proportion of the little blighters.

BTW the article quoted says this (my emphasis):


An FDA spokesperson tells WebMD that consumers should continue to follow CDC advice to use hand sanitizers when water is not available.

The CDC advice specifically says alcohol-based hand sanitizers help protect against MRSA and other germs. During flu season, the CDC continually warns Americans to prevent flu by using hand sanitizers when soap and water aren't around.

...

Here's the bottom line: Don't count on hand sanitizers for 100% protection from anything. Do wash your hands often. And when you can't wash your hands, do use hand sanitizers. Even the FDA agrees they get rid of a lot of the germs that are on your hands.

Conclusion: If there isn't enough water available for washing your hands, hand sanitisers aren't a bad substitute.

Valid points indeed.
I am finding it evidently disgusting & with slight observations just how many people don't wash their hands after visiting the convenience room..:evil:
I was always taught from such a very young age to ALWAYS wash hands thoroughly (without fail) each & every time & especially before meals.
Seems to be not so important these days.. :shock:

 

[sarvowinner]

I was also on QF2 out of LHR on the 16th - the plane was delayed for a considerable amount of time as both water compressors were out. When we did finally move out of the bay, the door in front of 79J would not arm (I was sitting in 80K) and it returned so engineers could look at it. They opened the door but couldn't find a fault. The door appeared to arm and we pulled out again only to have the same problem. Finally, a pilot came out and yanked the lever - apparently it registered remotely as being armed. Our 9.30 flight left well after 11.00pm.
In Dubai, our supposed 45 minute turnaround stretched out to 1 1/2 hours. Once on board, there was a problem with the refueling. At 10.20 am we were informed our slot was gone and we would not be leaving until 11.30am. Again, there was a hiccough with arming the door but it was resolved quite quickly. I didn't notice a problem with the water until the breakfast service when they announced there would not be coffee or tea service and the captain asked all to refrain from using the toilets for 20 minutes. I didn't need to )TG).
The FAs told us when we were disembarking at 7.30am (vs the scheduled 5.10am) that they were considering diverting to Singapore or Djakarta due to the water issue. The cabin crew were fine but the captain gave no updates until just before we landed in SYD regarding ETA. Also I had a lady sitting beside me who only spoke arabic. There was no arabic announcements at all which is unusual. She had no idea what was going on.
I did wonder about what our options would be if the plane was pulled from service. Three different issues seems too many. It is evident in hindsight that the plane should not have left SYD as QF1.

 

[erkpod]

There are Arabic announcements on QF flights?

 

[JohnK]

That type of water issue! And here I was thinking there was no drinking water and you were going to drink the bar dry.

Seriously though sounds like a flight I would avoid like the plague.

 

[Flying mermaid]

In 2009 I flew F with Etihad - SYD - LHR via auh. Anyway had 3 wonderful legs and was pretty taken with Etihad food and service (and cost). The fourth leg was a horror with below average service and toilets that failed on one side of the plane. I was pretty unimpressed and said to Mr FM that that would never happen with Qantas, so returned to the fold. Looks like I need to revise that opinion....

What worried me at the time was if the water could fail, what else wasn't being maintained properly - this leaves me wondering the same....

 

[wingspan]

There are Arabic announcements on QF flights?

English and Arabic, as well as French and German lately.

 

[markis10]

Are we talking about the same product? I'm talking about that alcohol based transparent gel where you pour a bit on your hands, rub them together then the stuff evaporates off. So where does the oil layer (and presumably, the germs) go? If it "removes" the oil layer, maybe it evaporates with the alcohol (no). More likely, the oil layer gets mobilized, but then reposes back on the hands, not removed but contact with the alcohols kills a proportion of the little blighters.

It strips the oil which then evaporates, however real life research has indicated it can actually add bacteria to the surface of the hands if it does have high enough alcohol content, ie your hands are dry after 10-15 seconds. better than nothing, possibly, but regular use could increase resistance which is an issue.

The True Power of Hand Sanitizer | JOURNYS

 

[wingspan]

It strips the oil which then evaporates, however real life research has indicated it can actually add bacteria to the surface of the hands if it does have high enough alcohol content, ie your hands are dry after 10-15 seconds. better than nothing, possibly, but regular use could increase resistance which is an issue.

The True Power of Hand Sanitizer | JOURNYS

According to latest research, there's no evidence that ABHSs are associated with increasing resistance*.

Futhermore, a plane is obviously not a hospital, but medical research suggests that health staff should either 1) rub all hand surfaces for 40-60 seconds with soap and water, or 2) rub all hand surfaces for 20-30 seconds with 3-5mL of alcohol*.

*Carter (2013) The right balance between hand sanitizers and handwashing. ​American Journal of Nursing.

 

[BD1959]

This thread sent me scurrying to Qantas Source - I had a 4hr delay in August 2011 at LAX because they could get the toilets to pressurize, I thought maybe this was a recurrence of that problem, the pilot stated he was not prepared to put the aircraft in the air for a 14 hr flight without toilets. In my case it appears that -OQG was the problem aircraft. During that incident the pilot said they were working with Airbus in France as no-one had experienced this issue, after about 2.5hrs they had been given a "workaround" by Airbus engineers, they then spent another hour getting authorisation to use the workaround from Qantas Engineering in Sydney. Once airborne everything seemed to work fine but my QF94 was short-shunted (good old Melbourne term!) in Sydney due to staff running out of hours, remaining MEL passengers were shuttled down to MEL on a 747. In all we arrived about 7 hrs late into MEL - but I'd rather that, than fly for 14hrs without toilets being able to be flushed.

Interesting that this has now occurred on a sister ship and that QF now appear more likely to take the chance with the flight than keep the aircraft grounded.

Regards,

BD

 

[blackcat20]

Sounds like a hell of a flight; it's a bad enough flight without water issues.

 

[amaroo]

Only problem last week at DXB was computer system went down and they double booked 4 on 11-13 in J

unfortunately I got on plane early as the other 4 got put in F for the DXB-LHR leg (QF9)

Ahh, what a bummer!

 

[Rebekkap]

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 sanitizer isn't very effective at killing norovirus, the bug that is the most common cause of gastro, so probably not the world's best idea to use it in toilets instead of soap and water: Norovirus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[sarvowinner]

Y
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

On QF2 out of LHR on Sept 16th, They told us both water compressors were down.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I can't seem to find any official comment on this issue? it surprises me as it might hit the news and you would have thought QF would want to be proactive.

i think the couple of answers many people want to know is firstly at what point did the problem manifest? the extent of the impact, and depending on that, why the plane didn't divert.

 

[EmilyHoward]

I think I would much rather try to get to my destination on time (or sometime close) than worry about having no water to drink, flush the loos or wash my hands.

EH

 

[JohnK]

English and Arabic, as well as French and German lately.

Out of interest what would be the average length of each announcement? 1-2 minutes? And you get the privilege to be interrupted for 4x the time it takes for 1 announcement with the IFE off air for each announcement!

This was one of my biggest gripes on an MH HKG-KUL flight where they had announcements in 4 different languages and by the end of the flight it felt like I had use of the IFE for ~1 hour. On this particular flight there must have been 10-15 announcements. Very frustrating.