Faulty Qantas flight screens Fawlty Towers

[Ryan N]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/fa...331145167.html

Faulty Qantas flight screens Fawlty Towers
Jonathan Dart
September 19, 2008 - 10:14AM

After a series of blunders that kept one of its aircraft stranded on the tarmac for about two hours this morning, Qantas tried to calm passengers by screening an episode of Fawlty Towers.

"The irony was not lost on us," said one passenger, Jock, who telephoned the Herald while waiting on the aircraft as it sat idle at Sydney airport this morning.

The comedy of errors began shortly after passengers boarded flight QF45, due to leave Sydney for Christchurch in New Zealand, shortly after 8am.

The pilot soon made an announcement that the machine used to tow aircraft into position on the runway was faulty.

Then at around 9am, as the plane was moved into position, the pilot made another announcement that the cargo in the luggage hold had not been stored properly.

Some passengers asked if they could get off the plane, but were told the doors had already been sealed.

"People are walking around, everyone is quite restless," Jock said. "I got a chuckle out of the Fawlty Towers episode, it's a bit of black humour."

A Qantas spokeswoman said the plane eventually took off shortly before 10am.

"There were no technical problems [with the aircraft], they were just processing some luggage," she said.