Another Qantas flight goes wrong...

BAGT514 · 25-08-2011, 02:05 PM

I was heading from Perth to Brisbane on the "Red Eye" (QF652) last night after my stint at work. After taking off it was noticable that something wasn't right and after an hour the pilot informed us that the landing gear wouldn't retract.......
We turned back to Perth and landed and had to be parked up at the very southern area on the Perth runway until the fire crew had a chance to inspect us. They towed us back to the terminal and Qantas organised another 767 for our flight. 4 hours after our original schedule take-off we boarded the pane again to head off. My transfer to Mount Isa took of 30 mins before I landed and I am stuck in the Qantas lounge for 7 hours...
I respect the pilots for erring on the side of caution and the fact our utmost safety was kept in mind at all times (as it should be)
BUT
The pilot stated he had never in all his years at Qantas experienced anything like this and the frequency of failures seems to be increasing.
A few months back our Qantas 717 popped an engine on the Perth-Newman flight.
Am I just having bad luck or are Qantas geting worse?

Shane

GT0132 · 25-08-2011, 02:20 PM

I think that the airlines , not just Qantas, have had to engage in a lot of cost cutting over the years just to remain competitive and it seems maintenance costs have been one of those to have taken a hit.

Going back to the mid 80's, it then cost around $600 for a return economy class airfare from Sydney to Auckland flying Qantas or Air NZ . Today, around 25-30 years later, you can still get a return trip for that price whereas most other consumable items have increased at least 5 fold in that time. Obviously with rising operating costs the airlines need to do anything they can to maintain their margins , but many of their costs they have no control over - i.e fuel prices, landing fees etc....so what gives?...yep service and maintenence.

Qantas have been fortunate enough to never have had a loss of life incident in their history , a feat not shared with any other major airline. However with all the events in the past 2-3 years I think it's only a matter of time before that changes.

Jim Goose · 25-08-2011, 02:30 PM

Id be more worried if the gear didnt come down...

Failure of the gear going up can be as simple as a microswitch not working.

EFFalcon · 25-08-2011, 02:35 PM

I think its just that the media reports on every single failure regardless of how serious it is.

BAGT514 · 25-08-2011, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GT0132

Qantas have been fortunate enough to never have had a loss of life incident in their history , a feat not shared with any other major airline. .

Qantas have never lost a life of a paying customer. They have - however killed flight crew with crashes......

GT0132 · 25-08-2011, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAGT514

Qantas have never lost a life of a paying customer. They have - however killed flight crew with crashes......

Ok stand corrected

BAGT514 · 25-08-2011, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GT0132

Ok stand corrected

Don't get me wrong - they still have the best record of all airlines in the world. I just wonder if the standard is slipping....

I have personaly had 2 incidents in as many months

pottery beige · 25-08-2011, 02:52 PM

did you crash.... no... i dont see the problem....

blueoval · 25-08-2011, 02:52 PM

You would think after a 252million dollar profit, you think you could afford to spend a bit more on quality control in the maintenance department, wouldnt you?

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/qan...-1226121303426

Jim Goose · 25-08-2011, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAGT514

Qantas have never lost a life of a paying customer. They have - however killed flight crew with crashes......

They have suffered fatal accidents in which passengers died, but the last one was in the 1950s. No fatalities since then.

BAGT514 · 25-08-2011, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

They have suffered fatal accidents in which passengers died, but the last one was in the 1950s. No fatalities since then.

The passenger was a pilot who was travelling back for his next flight. He wasn't a paying passenger

Yellow_Festiva · 25-08-2011, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GT0132

Going back to the mid 80's, it then cost around $600 for a return economy class airfare from Sydney to Auckland flying Qantas or Air NZ . Today, around 25-30 years later, you can still get a return trip for that price whereas most other consumable items have increased at least 5 fold in that time. Obviously with rising operating costs the airlines need to do anything they can to maintain their margins , but many of their costs they have no control over - i.e fuel prices, landing fees etc....so what gives?...yep service and maintenence.

This is what I was going to say as well. The price of flying has hardly moved (at least in my experience) in the past 10 years.

12 years ago a cheap peak season flight to Europe was $1800-$2200 return and as of 3 months ago it is still the same price.

BAGT514 · 25-08-2011, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pottery beige

did you crash.... no... i dont see the problem....

I have been involved in the mining and petrochemical industy working fly in fly out for the last 20 years. 2 incidents in 2 months? If we had that on the mine site we worked at we would have safety, the parent company & the mines inspectors breathing down our necks.
The airline industry should be no different.
What is becoming apparent is the frequncy of which Qantas is having failures is becoming more & more. The regeim for repairs to airplanes requires 3 people to sign off on any inspection or repair to ensure the passengers safety. There should be next to zero incidents - not a steady increase.
I fly 3/4's around our great land every week with Qantas. I trust them more than any other carrier.
My trust is starting to waiver....

pottery beige · 25-08-2011, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAGT514

I have been involved in the mining and petrochemical industy working fly in fly out for the last 20 years. 2 incidents in 2 months? If we had that on the mine site we worked at we would have safety, the parent company & the mines inspectors breathing down our necks.
The airline industry should be no different.
What is becoming apparent is the frequncy of which Qantas is having failures is becoming more & more. The regeim for repairs to airplanes requires 3 people to sign off on any inspection or repair to ensure the passengers safety. There should be next to zero incidents - not a steady increase.
I fly 3/4's around our great land every week with Qantas. I trust them more than any other carrier.
My trust is starting to waiver....

luck of the draw??? i wouldnt read into it to much....
then again certain mechanical glitches and maintenance justification in times like this...........

Jim Goose · 25-08-2011, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAGT514

The passenger was a pilot who was travelling back for his next flight. He wasn't a paying passenger

VH-EBQ Drover... 1951... 7 killed. 6 paying passengers

VH-ABB shorts flying boat... 1944.. 1 passenger killed.

VH-ADU shorts flying boat... 1943... 13killed...

Plenty more before that...

The QANTAS record of zero fatalities holds only for the JET age...

BAGT514 · 25-08-2011, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

VH-EBQ Drover... 1951... 7 killed. 6 paying passengers

VH-ABB shorts flying boat... 1944.. 1 passenger killed.

VH-ADU shorts flying boat... 1943... 13killed...

Plenty more before that...

The QANTAS record of zero fatalities holds only for the JET age...

Correct

The list of all Qantas fatalities
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...atal_accidents

BAGT514 · 25-08-2011, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pottery beige

luck of the draw??? i wouldnt read into it to much....
then again certain mechanical glitches and maintenance justification in times like this...........

The standards at which all inspections and repairs are carried out - the tripple checking of all work - there should not be any problems with a plane responsible for the wellbeing of 250 + paying customers. CASA are extremely stringent with Australian registered airplanes - just look at what they did with Tiger. I wonder how long in the future before Qantas get a big "Please explain" from CASA like Tiger did.

rancidpunx · 25-08-2011, 03:51 PM

In my opinion Qantas suck. Sometimes I have to fly with them internationally but If there is a choice then its Emirates or Virgin Atlantic. I would also fly Cathay and Singapore before I would book with Qantas even if they are cheaper. The flight crew mostly (some are good I did have a good flight to Tokyo recently) are bored and look like they cant be bothered. The attitude is wrong. The food is ok but the service for clearing the meals is beyond slow. 2hrs to take the bloody tray away is not on. The selection of Movies is usually poor and they dont have another set of movies for the return flight. The TV coverage is all right though. Flying out of LA you will be in a domestic terminal so will be bored to death after your check In through code share American Airlines staff who are a nightmare. I swear the seats on the Qantas 747s are also closer together than other airlines to.
Everyone has their faults but they are mounting recently for Qantas, it doesnt help they are cutting staff numbers either.

**cs123** · 25-08-2011, 04:19 PM

I hate the 767 fleet that Qantas has. It seems every second flight is delayed because something is broken

Spudz27 · 25-08-2011, 04:24 PM

Saying maintenance should be better etc etc, is pointless. We all own cars, we can drive that car for months/years without issue and then one day we get in and "oh crap the starter motor is dead" or "damn my brakes failed" and so on. Why is an aircraft any different? It could be a simple fuse or something that blew preventing the gear crom retracting, it could be something else, but that isn't to say poor maitenance caused it. Aircraft age just like every other machine. Same with the engine problem you had, could have been fine during maintenance.

SEZ213 · 25-08-2011, 05:10 PM

I recall something a while back about the engineers in Australia going on strike because they were sending their maintenance and repairs offshore, resulting in less than ordinary results, and an increase in incidents/near misses...but I honestly don't remember where I read it.

thedutchman92 · 25-08-2011, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAGT514

Qantas have never lost a life of a paying customer. They have - however killed flight crew with crashes......

QANTAS have never had a jet fatality but have had tens of fatalities in the 1950s and prior using prop aircraft

kaniSS · 25-08-2011, 05:36 PM

They keep outsourcing to Asia it's only a matter of time before a plane goes down.

thedutchman92 · 25-08-2011, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaniSS

They keep outsourcing to Asia it's only a matter of time before a plane goes down.

Fully agree with you, they've been playing russian roulette since the outsourcing, its also completely un-patriotic for our national carrier. My money is on catastrophic engine failure that takes the control surfaces with it when it explodes.

TheInterceptor · 25-08-2011, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaniSS

They keep outsourcing to Asia it's only a matter of time before a plane goes down.

Ding ding ding ding. We have a winner...

1000 aussie QANTAS jobs are about to go to asia.

Great not.

HLC · 25-08-2011, 11:33 PM

ive been on 40+ qantas flights in the last 10 months i reckon and not one issue...

i'm day tripping to karratha tomorrow, 737 there, 717 back and you make me nervous about the engine popping ha ha

the only issue ive had in a flight was on a skywest flight from Esperance back to Perth and it was too turbulent to serve lunch. I was so hungry :(

**cs123** · 25-08-2011, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HLC

ive been on 40+ qantas flights in the last 10 months i reckon and not one issue...

i'm day tripping to karratha tomorrow, 737 there, 717 back and you make me nervous about the engine popping ha ha

the only issue ive had in a flight was on a skywest flight from Esperance back to Perth and it was too turbulent to serve lunch. I was so hungry :(

I'd do about 80 to 90 Qantas flights a year, sometimes more. The newer planes are OK but the 767s are a pile of junk for reliability. Nice plane in their time but they are due to be pensioned off.

thedutchman92 · 25-08-2011, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HLC

ive been on 40+ qantas flights in the last 10 months i reckon and not one issue...

i'm day tripping to karratha tomorrow, 737 there, 717 back and you make me nervous about the engine popping ha ha

the only issue ive had in a flight was on a skywest flight from Esperance back to Perth and it was too turbulent to serve lunch. I was so hungry :(

717 mate...I would be nervous

xtremerus · 26-08-2011, 08:23 PM

Are the Qantas flight issues, only on planes that have been serviced overseas, and the locally serviced ones, have none?
Just interested. Does anyone know?

mik · 26-08-2011, 09:36 PM

one thing i`m wondering, how many issues get swept under the carpet with the other airlines? i mean our pilot`s /crew have no troubles telling the public when the smallest thing goes astray , don`t get me wrong, and i reckon that`s a good thing, even though jet`s scare the doo doo outa me( i don`t fly), but i`m thinking you don`t seem to hear many problems with some of the other airlines, and i suspect they all have them but some crews/pilots are under standing orders to keep their mouths shut.