Mid-air drama on Qantas flight

[yeadrian 0]

Mid-air drama on Qantas flight / Matthew Benns / November 29, 2008

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/11/...7491827104.html

 

A QANTAS jet serviced days ago in Hong Kong had to turn back yesterday after the crew was forced to turn off one of its two engines.

The Airbus A330 with 168 passengers en route to Singapore returned to Perth when an engine oil warning light flashed in the cockpit.

Aviation sources told the Herald the engine starter motor sheared off because no oil had been put into the motor after its overhaul. David Cox, the executive general manager of Qantas Engineering, said: "Initial inspections by engineers indicate that the fault with the engine starter motor could have led to the engine oil problem."

He said the investigation into the issue would require "detailed analysis" in conjunction with the starter motor and engine manufacturers in the US.

Mr Cox said the Qantas A330 fleet was serviced overseas. "This particular aircraft returned earlier in the week from a four-day "C" check carried out in Hong Kong. The plane returned to Perth on one engine and a replacement plane finally took off with the passengers four hours and 50 minutes late. A Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) spokesman, Peter Gibson, confirmed preliminary reports that the malfunction had originated in the starter motor and that the oil supply was being looked at.

"CASA has been kept fully informed on the incident by Qantas and will be closely monitoring Qantas's investigation of the event," Mr Gibson said.

A survey of Qantas maintenance staff this year found there was concern about safety standards in part because of offshore maintenance.

 

 

Even the headlines with the Insurgency in Thailand and the Mumbai Siege, they still made it to the news.....

 

[Min 6]

Mid-air drama on Qantas flight / Matthew Benns / November 29, 2008

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/11/...7491827104.html

 

A QANTAS jet serviced days ago in Hong Kong had to turn back yesterday after the crew was forced to turn off one of its two engines.

The Airbus A330 with 168 passengers en route to Singapore returned to Perth when an engine oil warning light flashed in the cockpit.

Aviation sources told the Herald the engine starter motor sheared off because no oil had been put into the motor after its overhaul. David Cox, the executive general manager of Qantas Engineering, said: "Initial inspections by engineers indicate that the fault with the engine starter motor could have led to the engine oil problem."

He said the investigation into the issue would require "detailed analysis" in conjunction with the starter motor and engine manufacturers in the US.

Mr Cox said the Qantas A330 fleet was serviced overseas. "This particular aircraft returned earlier in the week from a four-day "C" check carried out in Hong Kong. The plane returned to Perth on one engine and a replacement plane finally took off with the passengers four hours and 50 minutes late. A Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) spokesman, Peter Gibson, confirmed preliminary reports that the malfunction had originated in the starter motor and that the oil supply was being looked at.

"CASA has been kept fully informed on the incident by Qantas and will be closely monitoring Qantas's investigation of the event," Mr Gibson said.

A survey of Qantas maintenance staff this year found there was concern about safety standards in part because of offshore maintenance.

 

 

 

 

Even the headlines with the Insurgency in Thailand and the Mumbai Siege, they still made it to the news.....

 

 

As usual, HK engineer the one should be blamed. typical..

[Sri Ramani K. 0]

so question now is, during the pilots walk around check, didn't he check the engine oil indication? there must have been a warning on the ECAM if the engine oil level was low right?

[Pieter C. 5]

Qantas don't perform test-flight(s) after C-check ?

[MIR 2]

Dramas..Dramas..Dramas.. Here is a story about their fake engineer in Australia.

 

Fake Qantas engineer gives court fake references

For nine months, Timothy McCormack worked as a senior engineer for Qantas, performing high level maintenance jobs on scores of planes and certifying dozens of others as air-worthy.

 

When he was exposed as a fraud in July last year, Mr McCormack, 27, admitted to a court that he had faked his qualifications to get his job, putting thousands of lives at risk.

 

But before sentencing, he produced four excellent character references to prove to the judge that he really was a person of quite outstanding character, and should receive a lighter sentence.

 

The references, which included one from a police officer, were almost too good to be true. Now the Sydney District court has discovered they really were too good to be true, and that Mr McCormack had falsified those references, too.

 

As Mr McCormack sank further and further in his seat in the dock, his head between his fists until only his hair was visible, Judge Mark Marien told the court that all four references were formatted in the same way and signed by the same hand.

 

Other basic errors in the references had made it easy for the prosecution to prove them to be false. One, written by a fictional school counsellor, had misspelt counsellor as 'councilor'.

 

Senior Sergeant Woodwood, president of Hornsby Junior Australian Rules Football Club who proffered a glowing refence describing Mr McCormack as "the fairest and the best" didn't exist. Nor, of course, did the club.

 

Judge Marien described Mr McCormack's attempts to get off sentencing as "an extroardinary event."

 

Mr McCormack, 27, had pleaded guilty to 42 charges of falsifying documents, including his exam results for the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's (CASA) aircraft maintenance engineer licence and his engineering credentials.

With one basic CASA exam under his belt, giving him only the most basic knowledge of aircraft engineering, Mr McCormack was employed by Qantas in 2004 in the relatively junior role of an aircraft maintenance engineer. All his work had to be approved by a licensed engineer.

 

Two years later, after presenting his supervisors with fake exam results he was promoted to the senior role of Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, which gave him the authority to overseeing maintenance works and certify the safety of aircraft.

In fact, he never passed any additional exams but had altered a colleague's engineer's licence on his home computer before passing it off as his own.

 

For the next 10 months, his forgery - and his lack of expertise - went unnoticed and he performed nearly 2000 maintenance jobs on 88 Qantas 747/400 planes, frequently used for long haul flights. He also certified as safe dozens of other planes. In all, around 12000 passengers flew in planes that he had worked on or certified as safe, despite his scant knowledge of how they worked.

 

It was only in in April last year, when his supervisors checked his qualifications and found that he wasn't listed as a licensed engineer that his secret life began to unravel.

 

Now Mr McCormack is facing additional charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

 

Sentencing has been adjourned for psychiatric tests.

[Loh Wilson 0]

Qantas .. O .... Qantas

 

So many interesting dramas in this few months.

[yeadrian 0]

gosh this is serious - danger lurking in the airline company.....

This is a damaging publicity for Qantas, they are struggling to keep the "safest airline" tag and this happens.....

 

 

 

 

Dramas..Dramas..Dramas.. Here is a story about their fake engineer in Australia.

 

[T Azahan 1]

But why didnt the plane experience any trouble during flight back from HKG after C check?

[Pieter C. 5]

But why didnt the plane experience any trouble during flight back from HKG after C check?

 

Exactly; KLM always perform 2 test-flights after C-check: 1 immediately after the maintenance and 1 to see if any faults were rectified...if seems not done here ?

 

OT: KLM's last Queenie in old 'dress' (Fox-Whiskey) now in paint-shop (for stripping and D-check); will re-appear in about 6-7 weeks in new 'dress'

[Pieter C. 5]

Qantas suffers second A330 ADIRU failure

 

Tuesday January 6, 2009

The mystery surrounding what is now dubbed the Ningaloo Triangle centered at Western Australia's North West Cape near Exmouth deepened last week when it was confirmed that Qantas experienced a second air data inertial reference unit failure in just four months in the area.

 

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it was advised on Dec. 27 of an occurrence that day involving a QF A330-300 cruising at 36,000 ft. on its way from Perth to Singapore. Some 260 nm. northwest of Perth the autopilot disconnected and the crew received an Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor message (NAV IR 1 fault) indicating a problem with ADIRU No. 1.

 

The crew implemented the new Airbus Operations Engineering Bulletin procedure by selecting the IR 1 and ADR 1 pushbuttons to off. The aircraft returned to Perth.

 

ATSB said the incident "appears to be a similar event to a previous event involving an A330 aircraft." In the October incident, 70 of the 313 people onboard the A330 flying from SIN to PER were injured when the aircraft pitched up and then dove twice after a failure of ADIRU 1. An ATSB preliminary report issued in November suggested the possibility that transmissions from a naval communications station interfered with onboard systems.

 

 

[Pieter C. 5]

Naval base denies interference with Qantas A330s

 

Thursday January 8, 2009

Joint US/Australia naval communications base in Exmouth, Western Australia, is not to blame for two air data inertial reference unit failures on Qantas A330s, according to the base manager.

Russell Levine told The Sydney Morning Herald that it was "highly, highly unlikely" that radio signals from the base could scramble a commercial aircraft's navigation systems because the two use completely different frequency bands.

 

Levine said the very low frequency signals from the Harold E. Holt naval base probably are unable to penetrate an aircraft fuselage.

"We [also] operate in the kilohertz range and the aviation computers operate in megahertz, so there's a big difference," he said.

"If we affected planes like that, we would have a lot more issues," he told the paper.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating both recent incidents and has not ruled out interference from the communications base.

 

[kianhong 0]

Aircraft involved is VH-QPG (c/n 603). Photo of the aircraft returning to Perth can be found here.