Faulty equipment downs Qantas jets

[Greg McDonald]

From ninemsn.com.au. Slightly sensationalised headline I think...


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 rare and extraordinary sight, passengers awoke to a high-altitude dawn with a close-up view of the Air New Zealand jet off their left wing.

Over 280 passengers on board flight QF12 arrived in Sydney four hours late after repairs to the aircraft in New Zealand.

A Qantas spokesman said passengers were not in danger and the flight continued in safety to New Zealand.

"The weather antenna wasn't working to their full satisfaction," the spokesman said.

"They chose the safest option to divert to Auckland, which had preferable weather to other diversion options, coupled with the fact the Air New Zealand plane was there to provide guidance.

"The aircraft were vertically separated at all time and governed by air traffic control."

The Air New Zealand flight was 35km away from the Qantas plane when the captain made radio contact asking for assistance.

The two planes came within a couple of thousand feet of each other as weather updates from the Air New Zealand flight were relayed across radio to the Qantas plane.

In the time it took to arrive in Auckland, a replacement antenna was flown across the ditch from Sydney and used to repair the faulty antenna.

In a separate incident, a Qantas 767 bound for Sydney was forced to turn back to Melbourne Airport with landing gear problems. Officials said Qantas flight 434 landed safely without incident.

It is understood the drama began when an "unsafe gear" warning sign was triggered, prompting the crew to take precautionary action.

[Jack B]

I believe the aircraft was VH-OEB

[Rhys Xanthis]

I dont believe the radical headline..

[Sarah C]

Headline writers can write anything - you read that and you think the aircraft actually crashed. They generally use that term 'downs' when a light aircraft, like a Cessna has an accident. They did the same thing for the QF78 a couple of weeks ago - headline writers must think they have to be a sensational as possible.

[AdamC]

My five cents worth.

Ok aircraft loses weather radar, just happens to be a qantas jet. Why would some *^&% head ring the media.

Would you just be happy knowing that your still going to arrive at your destination. I'm sure an aircraft could still operate without it's weather radar, knowing that ATC can help them with regard to weather updates. Pretty sure you they don't need the weather radar to land (someone please correct me if i'm wrong) as far as i'm aware.

I think this is starting to become a joke, some people must enjoy knowing that a story on the news is because of them.

[Brian Wilkes]

Down here in Melbourne theres a $50 fee or reward I spose to anyone who calls a un named news network to report a Qantas problem and or a delay!

[Kelvin R]

I was 3 hours late into MEL yesterday on QF. I should call and collect my reward. At least I will get some sort of compensation then considering I was meant to arrive at 10am and ended up arriving at 1pm.

[Robert Zweck]

I think this is starting to become a joke, some people must enjoy knowing that a story on the news is because of them.


This indicates where our society is at...everyone wants to be noticed or have some claim to fame.

No different from grafitti which is a cry for help from someone wanting to be noticed....or crying out for attention.

Don't look over there, look at me!

[Andy N]

Presumably the lack of radar was a big enough issue for the plane to need to follow the Air New Zealand plane and get updates and then land in Auckland instead for repairs.

I don't doubt it's been overblown in the media though, nothing new there. Nothing wrong with any passengers making a quick buck out of it either - the one guy I read/saw in the news was very complimentary about the way the Qantas staff handled it.

[Raymond Rowe]

No weather radar in a DC3 and passengers who have flown them have had to live with the weather. come back from Sydney one night on a 3 and one of the worst weather storms you could fly in. We made it back.Passengers of today are just to soft.

[Robert Zweck]

I dont believe the radical headline..


In todays Adelaide Advertiser it's worse....

" Qantas crew flew blind "

Unbelievable

[Adam G]

No weather radar in a DC3 and passengers who have flown them have had to live with the weather. come back from Sydney one night on a 3 and one of the worst weather storms you could fly in. We made it back.Passengers of today are just to soft.

I don't think it's the passengers, I think you'll find the Weather Radar requirements in the CAO's are the issue.

[Rhys Xanthis]

In todays Adelaide Advertiser it's worse....

" Qantas crew flew blind "

Unbelievable

What a joke.

Let the rebellion start...soon!

[D Chan]

flying blind.. where's the guide dog :p

[Justin L]

This article is much better on the issue.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,24577254-23349,00.html


Airlines often good Samaritans in emergencies
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer | October 31, 2008

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.

"It's a good-news story from the point of view of how collaborative the whole process out there is -- whether it's Qantas, British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM, Air New Zealand or whoever," Qantas chief pilot Peter Wilson said yesterday.

"I was very pleased with how it was handled. I think it was a good outcome."

The Qantas plane was more than three hours out of Los Angeles when its flight crew received a message saying one of two weather radar systems wasn't working. The crew switched to the other system but still could not get a result.

The option of diverting to Honolulu was rejected because there was a band of cloud with storms in the area.

Returning to Los Angeles would have required fuel to be dumped and passengers would have been inconvenienced.

But the Qantas captain knew of a nearby Air New Zealand Boeing 777 en route from London and LA to Auckland and asked its flight crew for help.

The Qantas plane's navigational equipment was still fully functional and its crew had weather reports showing few problems en route to Auckland but needed help determining what was immediately ahead.

"The NZ guys passed them their route and the Qantas pilots spoke to air traffic control, arranged for a clearance and slid over to the same route that the Air New Zealand guys were on," Air New Zealand chief pilot David Morgan told The Australian.

Mr Morgan said weather radar was important when crossing the equator. "That's where you get a lot of weather," he said. "But in actual fact, talking to the captain of NZ1, he said there wasn't a great deal of weather. It was one of the better flights, he said, and very little weather avoidance was required."

The Qantas aircraft was repaired in Auckland and flew on to Sydney.

[Andrew M]

This article is much better on the issue.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,24577254-23349,00.html

Of course it's better, Steve Creedy wrote it and his articles are always on the mark 10/10 Mr Creedy :D

It is nice that the NZ pilots helped out QF in this case, they could have denied help and forced QF to turn back to LA

[Mike W]

It is nice that the NZ pilots helped out QF in this case, they could have denied help and forced QF to turn back to LA

I doubt any pilot would turn down this kind of request. They're all brothers (and sometimes sisters) up there in the sky. :)

[Andrew M]

I doubt any pilot would turn down this kind of request. They're all brothers (and sometimes sisters) up there in the sky. :)

Would SQ offer help to QF :)

[Matt_L]

Would SQ offer help to QF :)

Not if its across the Pacific! :D

Although, if you read airliners.net you would think SQ were starting aus-usa services tomorrow and QF are starting DXB.

[D Chan]

Would SQ offer help to QF :)

airlines offer help to each other all the time in a lot of areas e.g. maintenance issues - lending spare parts, offering assistance during distress (emergency) etc.
This cooperation stops when we talk about marketing and strategy etc.

[Mike W]

Would SQ offer help to QF :)

Of course they would. Some things are bigger than the name of your employer :cool: