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Further problems on Qantas airplanes
Source: Agencies |
November 16, 2010, Tuesday
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AN electrical fault sent smoke into the cockpit of a Qantas Boeing 747, forcing it to turn back to Sydney yesterday. It is the latest in a string of problems for the airline since an engine explosion on a superjumbo prompted a global safety scare.
The latest incident was unrelated to the superjumbo drama, but it was the third time Qantas jetliners have aborted flights because of faults since the November 4 explosion on an Airbus A380.
The Airbus incident has focused extra attention on Qantas, which prides itself on its safety record. Qantas says the three faults since November 4 were far less serious than problems with the A380 and that the turnarounds were merely precautionary.
The airline said a Boeing 747 carrying 221 passengers and crew was an hour into a flight from Sydney to Buenos Aires, Argentina, when smoke started coming out of the instrument panel in the cockpit.
Pilots put on oxygen masks and turned the plane around, dumping fuel over the Pacific Ocean before making a "priority landing" in Sydney.
"This is absolutely in line with procedure to ensure that they can safely arrive, which they did," Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said.
Passengers said the pilot informed them that there had been a problem with an instrument panel and the plane would return to Sydney.
"We couldn't smell or hear anything," passenger Samantha Gash told Nine Network television.
"All we noticed, because we were next to the wing, is when the fuel was let out. Everyone was very quiet and calm. It was probably when we landed back in Sydney and there were four or five fire engine trucks behind us that people began to start to feel a bit uneasy."
Wirth said the problem was a "minor electrical fault" that caused a "minimal" amount of smoke in the cockpit.
Engine problems
On Friday, a Qantas Boeing 767 turned back on a domestic flight within Australia after pilots detected abnormal vibrations in one of its two General Electric engines.
A week earlier, a Sydney-bound Qantas Boeing 747 landed safely in Singapore after an engine caught fire minutes after takeoff.
Both 747 planes were °?fitted?with Rolls-Royce RB211 engines. The A380 scare is being blamed on a fault in the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine.
Britain's Rolls-Royce Group PLC, the world's second-largest engine maker, said on Friday that it would be replacing a module, or collection of linked parts, on the Trent 900. Airbus said Rolls-Royce would also be equipping the engines with software to shut them down before an oil leak caused an engine to disintegrate.
The latest incident was unrelated to the superjumbo drama, but it was the third time Qantas jetliners have aborted flights because of faults since the November 4 explosion on an Airbus A380.
The Airbus incident has focused extra attention on Qantas, which prides itself on its safety record. Qantas says the three faults since November 4 were far less serious than problems with the A380 and that the turnarounds were merely precautionary.
The airline said a Boeing 747 carrying 221 passengers and crew was an hour into a flight from Sydney to Buenos Aires, Argentina, when smoke started coming out of the instrument panel in the cockpit.
Pilots put on oxygen masks and turned the plane around, dumping fuel over the Pacific Ocean before making a "priority landing" in Sydney.
"This is absolutely in line with procedure to ensure that they can safely arrive, which they did," Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said.
Passengers said the pilot informed them that there had been a problem with an instrument panel and the plane would return to Sydney.
"We couldn't smell or hear anything," passenger Samantha Gash told Nine Network television.
"All we noticed, because we were next to the wing, is when the fuel was let out. Everyone was very quiet and calm. It was probably when we landed back in Sydney and there were four or five fire engine trucks behind us that people began to start to feel a bit uneasy."
Wirth said the problem was a "minor electrical fault" that caused a "minimal" amount of smoke in the cockpit.
Engine problems
On Friday, a Qantas Boeing 767 turned back on a domestic flight within Australia after pilots detected abnormal vibrations in one of its two General Electric engines.
A week earlier, a Sydney-bound Qantas Boeing 747 landed safely in Singapore after an engine caught fire minutes after takeoff.
Both 747 planes were °?fitted?with Rolls-Royce RB211 engines. The A380 scare is being blamed on a fault in the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine.
Britain's Rolls-Royce Group PLC, the world's second-largest engine maker, said on Friday that it would be replacing a module, or collection of linked parts, on the Trent 900. Airbus said Rolls-Royce would also be equipping the engines with software to shut them down before an oil leak caused an engine to disintegrate.
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