Air safety report lists 70 malfunctions

[Geoff W]

How much of this story is really serious or just spin?

It seems a lot in some 60ish days, but I am sure there is another side to the story

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Kind regards,

Geoff



http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/air-safety-report-lists-70-malfunctions-20100307-pqql.html

[Adam P.]

Sounds like someone's given a journo a copy of Flight Safety, and it's been taken just a little bit out of context.

Despite the best preventative maintenance, aeroplanes are complex mechanical beasts. Occasionally they break down. It's a fact of life. When they break, the defect gets reported. The industry tends to share information on service difficulties between operators of the same type in the interests of safety.

Then it gets fixed and the aeroplane goes and flies on the line again. All perfectly normal, everyday stuff for any airline.

Most of the time the general public will not hear about breakdowns - because aircraft can be swapped around (and frequently are - reason # 233 why rego requests are largely a waste of time, but that's another thread entirely :rolleyes:) behind the scenes so that they don't affect any schedules. It's only when those broken aeroplanes can't be swapped out to allow time to fix them (or the breakdown occurs in a particularly inconvenient location and there's a wait while engineers are positioned out there) that delays and disruptions result. You might hear about those occasionally (especially, dare I say it, if there's a big white kangaroo on the tail), but it's hardly a sign of safety problems.

But it's better to be reading about busted aeroplanes than to be reading about big, smoking, aeroplane-shaped holes in the ground, eh??

[Robert Zweck]

Whilst aeroplanes continue to be designed and constructed by humans, mechanical and other faults will continue to occur

[Adam P.]

Sounds like someone's given a journo a copy of Flight Safety, and it's been taken just a little bit out of context.

So I just got home and checked my mailbox.

Surprise! The new Flight Safety came out today.

Coincidence?? :rolleyes: