Another 747 problem.

[Sprucegoose]

Its well beyond the range of an A330-300, and also A330-200. And as the routing heads very much south and close to Antarctica, not going to happen on a twin-engine aircraft due to ETOPS limitations.

Yes syd-zee is a good 900 miles more than Mel- Jnb which is done in a two engined bird.

 

[ethernet]

Qantas has new music to listen to for all its jet flights

Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
Fire in the sky - Ozzy
Flight Of Icarus - Iron Maiden
Flame on - Tony Iommi
When the smoke is going down - Scorpions
Take Hold Of The Flame - Queensryche
Fire Woman - The Cult
Fire down below Bob Seger
Burning kisses - Bitter Grace
Take Hold Of The Flame - Queensryche
Burnin' For You - Blue Oyster Cult
Wheel in the sky - Journey
Freewheel Burning - Judas Priest
Burning Like A Flame - Dokken
Ring of Fire
It's Raining Men
Leaving on a jet plane - john denver
Beat Up Old Jetliner Lyrics - Bob Rivers :evil:

 

[Mal]

Those Australian based Plane engineers must be really bad at their job. I think it's time that Qantas outsourced their maintenance to overseas maintenance bases which do a better job.

(This is completely tongue-in-cheek btw). Steve, are you reading????

 

[medhead]

I am now waiting for my flight to BKK... Just want to get going!! I do note my boarding pass now clearly states "Chairmans Lounge". I guess that is a token "thank you" due to the delay in my flight?!?!

Well there you go. Congratulations.

 

[Alanslegal]

Just watched the late night news on Ten and I see one of the QF17 pax say to the effect that "I knew there was a problem when the seat didn't electriclly recline and my laptop didn't power up using the in-seat power".

Now if there is an electrical issue with smoke, I would be happy to have no electrical seat or in-seat power, as I'd rather the pilot only operate what is essential to minimise that issue from developing, then identify and remedy the fault, and I would expect the operating manual to confirm the same. Now Mr. Pax on QF17, your non-charging laptop probably saved you your life.

 

[meloz]

A little confused here - how did the EZE flight impact your BKK flight? In F I am not 100% sure I would be choosing QF over BA.

I suspect the QF 1 metal was substituted to get QF 17 back on its way.

I would and do choose QF F over BA F any day.

Meloz

 

[drewbles]

Just watched the late night news on Ten and I see one of the QF17 pax say to the effect that "I knew there was a problem when the seat didn't electriclly recline and my laptop didn't power up using the in-seat power".

Whilst the situation was no doubt extremely serious, I did actually audibly laugh at this one.

It would almost be as bad as "I knew there was a problem when the 1995 Charles Heidsieck Champagne Blanc des Millénaires was getting warm!"

Once again, another example of QF's crew being calm and totally professional in an unfortunate situation.

 

[Flying Fox]

The press has revised the passenger numbers to 199, a much healthier figure.

I'm guessing the earlier number may have been a typo.

QF17, with 199 passengers and 21 crew, was about an hour out of Sydney when the incident occurred. The smoke was caused by a recently replaced and faulty part in the co-pilot's electronic flight instrument system.

coughpit smoke forces Qantas 747 to return | The Australian

Huge congrats to bossregie on Chairman's Lounge! Hoping to guested in one day....

 

[NM]

Yes syd-zee is a good 900 miles more than Mel- Jnb which is done in a two engined bird.

2-engined 777-300ER has a little more range than an A330. And MEL-JNB in a 777 operates further north than great circle route to remain in ETOPS range. SYD-EZE great circle route is further south and further away from ETOPS suitable alternates, so remaining within ETOPS range of alternates for a twin would require way more than 900 miles more than MEL-JNB.

So QF's options for the 199 passengers booked SYD-EZE:
1. Cancel the flight and try to re-route passengers on LAN via AKL and SCL (make a non-stop into a 2-stop trip :shock
2. Cancel the flight and try to re-route passengers via LAX - difficult given the reduced capacity on SYD-LAX due to A380 grounding
3. Operate an A330 via PPT
4. Operate a 744

Keep in mind they may be making up for the light passenger load by filling the belly with freight

 

[JohnK]

ETOPS rules stop them using something smaller on the route... The 2 engine rules kick in which means that they have no choice but to operate a B747 (or A380) on the route. Thus if they want to fly the route (without going a long way north), they need a 4 engined plane, it's that simple.

While it was not clearly obvious I may have been hinting that QF dump this route or use a smaller 2 engine aircraft and go SYD-EZE via AKL, NAN or PPT.

I still believe it is an absolute waste to use a 747 on a route with <200 passengers when it could be used in other routes with greater demand. But I guess someone at QF believes this route is worthwhile....

 

[meloz]

While it was not clearly obvious I may have been hinting that QF dump this route or use a smaller 2 engine aircraft and go SYD-EZE via AKL, NAN or PPT.

I believe ETOPS requirements would prevent this.

Meloz

 

[JohnK]

I believe ETOPS requirements would prevent this.

Even via PPT?

 

[nlagalle]

While it was not clearly obvious I may have been hinting that QF dump this route or use a smaller 2 engine aircraft and go SYD-EZE via AKL, NAN or PPT.

I still believe it is an absolute waste to use a 747 on a route with <200 passengers when it could be used in other routes with greater demand. But I guess someone at QF believes this route is worthwhile....

An A340 might be a better option if they had one...

 

[meloz]

Even via PPT?

PPT should be fine but adds more than 2,000 miles which may prove worse finacially than the low load case.

Meloz

 

[docjames]

So QF's options for the 199 passengers booked SYD-EZE:
1. Cancel the flight and try to re-route passengers on LAN via AKL and SCL (make a non-stop into a 2-stop trip :shock
2. Cancel the flight and try to re-route passengers via LAX - difficult given the reduced capacity on SYD-LAX due to A380 grounding
3. Operate an A330 via PPT
4. Operate a 744

Keep in mind they may be making up for the light passenger load by filling the belly with freight

Dont forget there's a plane load booked to come on the return so need to accomodate them as well.

While it was not clearly obvious I may have been hinting that QF dump this route or use a smaller 2 engine aircraft and go SYD-EZE via AKL, NAN or PPT.

I still believe it is an absolute waste to use a 747 on a route with <200 passengers when it could be used in other routes with greater demand. But I guess someone at QF believes this route is worthwhile....

Dont forget Freight, and also it's only loading on one day. For all we know, it could have 300-odd most other days.

 

[ejb]

Even via PPT?

I vote for this route as it would let me tick off a major wish.

ejb

 

[JohnK]

PPT should be fine but adds more than 2,000 miles which may prove worse finacially than the low load case.

Good point.

Dont forget Freight, and also it's only loading on one day. For all we know, it could have 300-odd most other days.

I was under the impression this was one of the routes QF was considering removing as it has not been performing as well as expected. Can anyone confirm the loadings?

I vote for this route as it would let me tick off a major wish.

Yes it would be nice to have viable Oneworld options to PPT.

 

[meloz]

Good point.


Can anyone confirm the loadings?

7 seats on Saturday when you take into account the free loaders

Meloz

 

[justin23]

The rumour I heard is as soon as they can get a 787 onto this leg, they will fly to Rio instead of BA. They were thinking of trying to fly to Rio via somewhere else. Apparently a large proportion of the travellers on this flight, fly on to Brazil. Its a shame, because Argentina is a wonderful country, that Australians would love. Just very little marketing here and the reciprocal visa fee is not good either.

I flew to EZE this year and both times there was generally an empty seat for every person on the plane. in fact if you were travelling as a 3 or 4 it was bad as you'd get lumped together, but several single travellers had 3 seats to lie down on.