Faulty equipment downs Qantas jets

[NM]

Oh my goodness. What a poor headline.

from news.com.au:

QANTAS has been forced to bring down two planes in one day after they suffered equipment failure in mid-flight.

The first incident saw a Qantas flight "piggyback" an Air New Zealand plane and divert to Auckland after its weather antenna stopped working three hours out of Los Angeles.

...

In a separate incident, Qantas 767 bound for Sydney was forced to turn back to Melbourne Airport with landing gear problems.

 

[Kendall Roy]

What a poor headline. | news.com.au:

Geee, would never expect that

Doesn't change my opinion of QF overall......

 

[drron]

Didnt the army lose some rocket launchers?Who would have guessed they ended up with QF?

 

[NM]

Didnt the army lose some rocket launchers?Who would have guessed they ended up with QF?

only the faulty ones, of course

 

[laffer]

I am personally not as outraged, as some are on here, about the caning that Qantas is copping in the Press recently. It is well deserved. Qantas, through its former CEO Mr. Dixon, were previously the darlings of the Press and Canberra. Its continued protection on the pacific route, in the name of 'Aussie Jobs', is a disgrace when one takes into account the consistent outsourcing program which Qantas has introduced. Its Labor relations stink, its frequent flyer program stinks and its planes are obviously creaking (no matter how sensationalised the headline).

 

[simongr]

In relation to the "creaking" aircraft - do you have any facts benchmarking aircraft performance of QF against similarly aged and scaled aircraft fleets to support the "obviously" comment? Not being based in SIN, I dont hear about SQ aircraft or not being based in DFW I dont hear about AA issues. It would be great to have some real benchmarking stats about the number of incidents, severity and scale of fleet to support the criticism.

I assume when you referred to outsourcing you meant offshoring as you seek protectionism for australian workers rather than competition for work in a global markeplace?

In relation to the FF program comment I assume you mean redemptions cost (which I agree is woeful) rather than FF privileges which are I think much better than some others offered and still tempt me to come back to QFF.

Out of interest what do you hope to gain by having all this bandwidth spent on caning QF?

 

[laffer]

In relation to the "creaking" aircraft - do you have any facts benchmarking aircraft performance of QF against similarly aged and scaled aircraft fleets to support the "obviously" comment? Not being based in SIN, I dont hear about SQ aircraft or not being based in DFW I dont hear about AA issues. It would be great to have some real benchmarking stats about the number of incidents, severity and scale of fleet to support the criticism.

I assume when you referred to outsourcing you meant offshoring as you seek protectionism for australian workers rather than competition for work in a global markeplace?

In relation to the FF program comment I assume you mean redemptions cost (which I agree is woeful) rather than FF privileges which are I think much better than some others offered and still tempt me to come back to QFF.

Out of interest what do you hope to gain by having all this bandwidth spent on caning QF?

Out of interest what do you (and others) hope to gain by continuing to post threads bemoaning the Press coverage of Qantas? I was just expressing a point of view that I did not think that the press treatment of Qantas was necessarily unfair. The Press will cover an Australian airline with problems (and Qantas does have problems if it is having to ground aircraft or delay them). Qantas is happy to accept praise when it is dished out to them by a media who generally covers them quite favourably. Every now and then the beast turns on you. It happens. Qantas should live with it.

As for your comment about seeking protection for Australian workers. Well, I find it highly amusing (and to be honest infruiating) that Geoff Dixon and the Qantas crew can rely on the need to remain competitive and outsource jobs overseas yet at the same time urge the Australian Government to protect it from international competition on the pacific route. The fact that the Politicians in Canberra allow it to happen is an outrage! How can you demand protection on the one hand and outsource overseas on the other? Well you can if you are Geoff Dixon and Qantas and you get rewarded for it as well. The media hardly holds them to account on this one so Qantas can hardly complain about the treatment it is afforded on this front.

These are just my humble opinions

 

[NM]

Out of interest what do you (and others) hope to gain by continuing to post threads bemoaning the Press coverage of Qantas?

I have no issue with the facts being reported. I do have an issue with the sensationalist headline that seemed to be implying a Qantas aircraft fell from the sky. Personally I think the conservative and safety-first approach taken by the Qantas captain in making contact with the NZ aircraft and choosing to divert to AKL to repair the weather radar should be reported as a positive issue, not turned on its head and sensationalised as it was.

From my understanding of the situation of QF12 today, the passengers were never in any danger, so to suggest the aircraft was "downed" is, in my opinion, sensationalist. Diverted would be a more appropriate term to use.

 

[laffer]

I have no issue with the facts being reported. I do have an issue with the sensationalist headline that seemed to be implying a Qantas aircraft fell from the sky. Personally I think the conservative and safety-first approach taken by the Qantas captain in making contact with the NZ aircraft and choosing to divert to AKL to repair the weather radar should be reported as a positive issue, not turned on its head and sensationalised as it was.

From my understanding of the situation of QF12 today, the passengers were never in any danger, so to suggest the aircraft was "downed" is, in my opinion, sensationalist. Diverted would be a more appropriate term to use.

Its the Daily Terrorgraph - what do you expect?

 

[NM]

Its the Daily Terrorgraph - what do you expect?

The same as I expect from any media establishment - reporting of facts without the sensationalism .... and an interesting picture on page 3.

 

[simongr]

Isnt that the point? Rubbish papers posting rubbish?

One of my concerns is that people will believe that QF is an unsafe airline and I do not think that is fair on QF. We have bigger issues facing this country than QF operational issues.

I don't think it is right that QF can request protectionism and then not protect australian jobs - but then again protectionism is rife throughout business in australia and teh whole country seems to have a mentality that was moved on from many years ago. Again protectionism for QF is way down on the inefficiency list for me.

 

[oz_mark]

Even Qantas helps out when it happens to other carriers:

Airlines often good Samaritans in emergencies | The Australian

IT was a case of what goes around, comes around when a Qantas Boeing 747 with a faulty weather radar was led home by an Air New Zealand 777 this week.

The event, while unusual, was not unprecedented.

Qantas says one of its planes flying from London to Hong Kong offered a similar service to another carrier with a weather radar problem about two weeks ago.

*Note this does require you to accept that things do happen to carriers other than Qantas, but I hope that does not put too much strain on your belief system.

 

[straitman]

Even Qantas helps out when it happens to other carriers:

Airlines often good Samaritans in emergencies | The Australian



*Note this does require you to accept that things do happen to carriers other than Qantas, but I hope that does not put too much strain on your belief system.

Qantas, will of course be blamed for contracting to maintain the other carriers radar and providing dodgy maintenance support to said carrier.

 

[NM]

Even Qantas helps out when it happens to other carriers:

Its interesting that the QF incident scored an entry in the Aviation Herald. However, I cannot locate any similar incident of a weather radar failure on another carrier resulting in an escort by a Qantas aircraft. I searched the entries for the month of October, which would have met the "about two weeks ago" in the quoted post.

 

[oz_mark]

Its interesting that the QF incident scored an entry in the Aviation Herald. However, I cannot locate any similar incident of a weather radar failure on another carrier resulting in an escort by a Qantas aircraft. I searched the entries for the month of October, which would have met the "about two weeks ago" in the quoted post.

From what I can see that Aviation Herald only has a subset of all incidents that occur, and I guess the previous incident went largely unreported.

 

[NM]

From what I can see that Aviation Herald only has a subset of all incidents that occur, and I guess the previous incident went largely unreported.

Interestingly, that was the interesting point I was pointing out.

 

[oz_mark]

Interestingly, that was the interesting point I was pointing out.

It is a shame that the media outside Australia doesn't have the same interest in aviation as our purveyors of news do here in Australia do.