Jetstar A320 VH-VQW Damaged in Newcastle Foam Incident

[Greg Hyde]

From Jetstar source

23/04/2015

Jetstar A320 VH-VQW, which was under maintenance at Newcastle inside a hangar with all doors open, sustained severe damage to its engines, computer and electrical systems overnight when the hangar fire suppression system was activated and the aircraft was filled with foam.

VH-VQC, which was under maintenance at Newcastle with its nose inside a hangar sustained engine damage overnight when the hangar fire suppression system was activated and the aircraft was part covered with foam.


Oops, expensive.

[Mat James]

Yep, apparently there was a short circuit in the fire suppression system caused by the storms last week and it release a whole lot of foam.

Here's a photo of the aftermath.


http://i.imgur.com/Z428h9m.jpg

[Greg Hyde]

Both Newcastle/Willytown got hammered in the storms last week.

It will be interesting to see who picks up the costs ?

[Hugh Jarse]

That would be an insurance company [emoji4]

[Nigel C]

Well, at least they know the system does what it's designed to do!

[Rowan McKeever]

Is there any indication at this stage re how long these aircraft will take to repair and what, if anything, JQ will need to do to cover them in the schedule?

[JamesL]

Plenty of planes sitting in TLS doing nothing :D

[Rowan McKeever]

Well yeah, there is that James!

[Dave J]

Word is VQW is a write off!

[Rowan McKeever]

Can't say I'd be overly surprised. Imagine that foam would just seep through everything which would be a lot to repair.

[Greg Hyde]

Insurance might be a problem "with an act of god".

The supplier of the fire suppression system might have to pay if the system failed (ie: Went off without a fire).

Could a JQ write-off be a first QF w/o ?

[Dave J]

Avionics bay was open

[Adrian B]

Word is that there is a FA18 in the same boat / foam....

[Mick F]

What happened to the photo? Did Jetstar get embarrased?

[Mackenzie Davis]

2097

[Rowan McKeever]

Don't see why they'd be embarrassed? It's not like it was someone's fault, it's just a thing that happened. Could just as easily have been Qantas, Virgin, BA, Delta or any other airline.

[Stephen Brown]

More pics over on Airline Hubbuzz on Facebook.

JQ have said that the plane is not a write off and will be back flying soon.

[Alex T]

Found some more pics over at PPRuNe (looks quite nasty):
http://www.pprune.org/8960580-post11.html

[Robert.M]

Same photos on the Airline Hubbuzz Facebook page.

[Andrew P]

Don't forget 2 jetstar planes were involved.

[Robert.M]

Jetstar planes out for another two weeks following Newcastle bubble bath (http://www.smh.com.au/business/aviation/jetstar-planes-out-for-another-two-weeks-following-newcastle-bubble-bath-20150501-1my22f.html) - SMH