Virgin Blue jet forced to land in Mackay

[Hvr]

February 15, 2009 - 5:14PM
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) will decide on Monday whether to investigate the diversion of a Virgin Blue flight to Mackay on its way from Townsville to Brisbane.
Passengers say they were terrified after the 737-700 made a rapid descent from 30,000 feet to 10,000 feet on Sunday morning.

The main thing is that everyone is safe.

Be interested to see the cause of the problem.

 

[Mwenenzi]

From Virgin passengers' fear as plane forced to make emergency landing | Travel News | News.com.au

Passengers onboard a Virgin Blue flight from Townsville to Brisbane this morning were "terrified" after the plane reportedly lost cabin pressure and made an emergency landing in Mackay.
<snip>
“We were at 30,000 feet and all of a sudden we took a dive down to 10,000 feet. The pilot told us that the oxygen masks may fall, and ‘not to panic’,
<snip>
People with connecting Virgin flights got onboard another flight pretty quickly, while people with connecting flights with other companies were told they’d have to wait several hours for another flight.
“We were told not to expect to be back in Brisbane until 7pm.

“It has been really shocking service… they’ve not been nice to the affected passengers.”

The passengers were also outraged when told they would have to pay for another ticket.
<snip>
Virgin Blue’s public relations manager Amanda Bolger said the Mackay diversion was precautionary, necessitated by a coughpit indicator.

It was too early to say what caused the indicator to go off, she said.
<snip>
Passengers with connecting Virgin flights “received priority”, she said.
Passengers would not have to pay for an extra ticket, despite being instructed otherwise.
<snip>

Will be interesting to see how much media attention this get compared to QF incidents

 

[markis10]

TV shots seem to show an EMB190, not a 737!

 

[Nigelinoz]

Just spoken on the phone to a friend who is DJ cabin crew,she wasn't on the flight but she heard that it was a "Abnormal cabin pressure indicator" in the coughpit and the pilot descended as quickly,but as safely as possible and diverted to Mackay.
There was no "dive" to speak of,just a faster than normal rate of descent.

 

[Natt]

Airlines really should have some sort of "emergency service" that can be rung by staff in charge so that can get a consistent answer/course of action to take.

It seems with emergencies like this the staff on the ground does not know what to do - or am I off with that assessment

would be great if they could call someone who could authorise them to provide services in case of long (not routine delays) etc

 

[wallacej]

TV shots seem to show an EMB190, not a 737!

Agreed. From memory it was ZFH that was shown on the news. I guess any red plane will do.

 

[Saab34]

Agreed. From memory it was ZFH that was shown on the news. I guess any red plane will do.

VH-ZPB, an E190, was the offender here. How did a 737 come into the situation?

The ol' Journo's up to their old tricks again

 

[pauly7]

VH-ZPB, an E190, was the offender here. How did a 737 come into the situation?

The ol' Journo's up to their old tricks again

If by tricks you mean writing BS then yes

I wonder if any of them will join the dots on the other E190 incidents DJ have been having like the emergecny landing where the brakes failed...

Oh wait its not QF - this story will be forgotten in 5 seconds

 

[Nigelinoz]

If by tricks you mean writing BS then yes

I wonder if any of them will join the dots on the other E190 incidents DJ have been having like the emergecny landing where the brakes failed...

Oh wait its not QF - this story will be forgotten in 5 seconds

I'm sure that if there is anything to be concerned about then DJ will ask a
licensed engineer to have a look at them.