Another great day for the media-QF A380.

[drron]

Doesnt take bad news long to hit the papers!
Qantas ground one of their A380s

 

[Mal]

It is the second embarrassing incident involving the A380 for Qantas in five weeks, with another plane grounded at LAX on January 19.

Oh no! Can't have "embarrassing" incidents now can we? Considering the miles they clock up, technical issues every now and again are normal!

 

[serfty]

I was wondering since when QF10 was operated by a 388, but I guess the QF32 was changed to a 744 and the later departing QF10 given the beast.

Track Flight Status for (QF) Qantas Airways 10

It seems to have enventually departed around 2:30pm, ~16:30 later then the scheduled QF10 and ~27 hours later than the orginal scheduled QF32.

 

[Nigelinoz]

Oh no! Can't have "embarrassing" incidents now can we? Considering the miles they clock up, technical issues every now and again are normal!

Fair point,probably means that pauly7 will be on here complaining about the way Qantas is treated in the media.
The difference is this time he'd be right,makes you wonder whether the newspapers have anyhing else to print.

 

[Chicken or Beef]

A380 Scare-bus

Did we expect anything more with Hyundai's of the Air? These are brand new planes! Please book me on a 747!


Technical troubles ground Qantas' A380 fleet

 

[SeaWolf]

But hang on, this wasn't one of QF's A380s, it was all three:
Technical troubles ground Qantas' A380 fleet

Australia's Qantas Airways is working to get its Airbus A380 fleet back in full service after all three of its aircraft were grounded over the past 24hr as a result of technical issues. The Oneworld alliance carrier confirms in a statement to ATI that all three of its A380s were grounded, two for the same reason and one for a different reason. One is already back in service, another is due back in service later today and the third should go back in service tomorrow.

The way this aircraft has been drummed up as the second coming it's hardly surprising that there's keen interest in its performance.

 

[serfty]

"We have deployed Boeing 747s to cover affected services and all passengers are travelling in their booked class or higher," the carrier adds.

Considering I'm booked on 388's QF11/QF94 over the next week I'm pretty cautious about the whole thing ... it appears my QF11 flight is sold out in WHY ...

 

[Platy]

The difference is this time he'd be right,makes you wonder whether the newspapers have anyhing else to print.

I dunno, Nigel, now all three have been grounded, the story is definitely newsworthy.

Remember, QF have shamelessly recruited their media mates to promote the A380.

They have lots of passengers (customers) with ensuing high levels of expectation many of whom have been left waiting many long hours for their flights, with possibly many more to be bumped onto 744s instead of enjoying the leaky, wobbly nosed scarebuses.

Incidentally, the third aircraft was sitting in the maintenance area beyond taxiway B1 when I was in SYD DOM this morning (0730-0930).

Appearances may well be deceptive but I couldn't see any good QF folk attending to the broken bird.

Maybe QF should makeover their logo again and go for an EMU 'stead of a ROO

 

[Nigelinoz]

Well maybe it says more about the standard of engineering of Airbus than it does about QF,the A380 order book was so far behind when Qantas took delivery of it's first that just maybe they didn't do all the checks they should have.
I'm certainly not suggesting that the planes are unsafe or anything but you have to wonder whether QF got a couple of the airline equivalent of a "lemon",you know the car that's on the production line at 5.30 on a Friday and someone forgets to put the proper bolts in place and six months later the poor sod who bought it is complaining to the dealer about the handling.
Anybody know whether other operators have had problems?
I was told yesterday about an Emirates A380 which despite being only a few months old had torn carpets in first class and broken taps in the bathrooms on a recent flight a friend was on.

 

[Blurt]

I really don't know why anyone gets excited about the A380.
It's made by the same clowns that inflicted peugots, citroens and renaults upon the world. The french are best known for wine, cheese and bread (and surrendering) not engineering.......always remember that when you want to loosen your seat belt on an airbus product.

And the concorde was an engineering success despite the French not because of them. Just like WW1, WW2 and on and on and on.

 

[Evan]

<..>
I was told yesterday about an Emirates A380 which despite being only a few months old had torn carpets in first class and broken taps in the bathrooms on a recent flight a friend was on.

Customer are responsible for choosing the fitout and who supplied the components, they are just fitted by Airbus so i guess that is not there fault.

In any case the 2 grounded due to fungus in the fuel tanks is strange, you would expect others had the issue who fly the A380 and use the same fuel. Maybe something to do with the cold weather and long sitting times in the USA. There is different ways to stop it including special coating on the inside of tanks but the addatives to kill it can be super toxic so i guess they dont use it unless required.

Its news worthy but not in the sense to bash airbus for a defective product. Can't wait till i get to try them

E

 

[Mal]

Anyone with a 747 booking in the next few days should check their bookings carefully. Both my flight on Thursday and Monday have been subb'd with different planes.

 

[Chicken or Beef]

Anyone with a 747 booking in the next few days should check their bookings carefully. Both my flight on Thursday and Monday have been subb'd with different planes.

I imagine there will be many schedule changes in the next week or so!

 

[Aray]

Usual media-hungry vulturing combined with an unfortunate co-incidence of events for QF on their new acquistion ..

I feel for QF .. but then maybe this is the Karma Police keeping a check on them .. nonethless I am with them for riding this one through quickly and cleanly ..

 

[abc12345678]

Anyone with a 747 booking in the next few days should check their bookings carefully. Both my flight on Thursday and Monday have been subb'd with different planes.

Yeah when I OLCI'd today for SYD-MEL-SYD tomorrow I was suprised to see my MEL-SYD allocation was 4D....

Unfortunately not op-up, Just a change from a 763 to 738!! Not usually a fan of the 73's but will grin and bare it! Wondered why the change when I booked the last night and both were definately 763's.

 

[anat0l]

Lets hope this is not a chronic problem.

Then again, didn't SQ have a minor issue with their A380? I don't think it was worthy of a grounding, but nonetheless........

*sigh* Now I guess I don't feel so bad that I can't find any A380 F awards......

 

[taswegian77]

hi, is the easiest way to tell if they have changed aircraft simply to check your booking on line and click the flight number on the QF bookings site? I am scheduled on the A380 QF31 on the 13/3, have requested an upgrade and if it is subbed for a 747 I might cancel the request. would be a shame as was looking forward to trying out the new bird.

 

[Nigelinoz]

Lets hope this is not a chronic problem.

Then again, didn't SQ have a minor issue with their A380? I don't think it was worthy of a grounding, but nonetheless........

*sigh* Now I guess I don't feel so bad that I can't find any A380 F awards......

SQ is not the only one with problems,I had an email tonight from a friend who works at LHR and he mentioned that on January 27 an Emirates A380 suffered engine oil leaks and several broken fan blades on number 4 engine,it was not a result of a bird strke according to his information,as it is very difficult to fit an A380 engine in a conventional cargo plane the aircraft was 3 engine ferried to DXB where it underwent an engine change .
The incident caused several scheuled services to be changed to other aircraft until the plane was returned to service on Feb 2.

 

[Evan]

hmmmm,.. subs ...
well my QF9 tomorrow evening MEL-SIN had the seat mapped blocked 2 days ago even for staff... which was strange, my request was sent through to seating....
I looked on EF still showing a normal 4 class kangaroo 744 but the seats have drasticly changed from lots of availability to ...
R0 F0 A0 J0 C0 D0 W3 T1 Y0 B0 H0 K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0

I am in 54G still

Maybe i get op-up'ed, would be really nice !

E

 

[Aray]

Spotted one of the A380's on approach to Tulla this morning around 9:00am .. is this the ferry flight for the one stuck in Heathrow ?

Either way - at least one of them is back in the air !