Tiger Airways Takes Off Empty Leaving Passengers Behind

[Naim 6]

Yesterday at DRW, one Jetstar plane was grounded due to hydraulic fault, and because of that, 2 flights DRW-SIN had to be combined into one. And our A321 plane was used for that purpose, because the grounded plane was supposed to be used for the later SIN flight. We had to wait for some domestic flights with ppl connecting to SIN (via the cancelled flight) to arrive first before leaving. We finally took off 1.5hrs late, and we barely made it at SIN T1 to catch our AK flight back to KUL!

 

 

===

 

October 26, 2009 17:01 PM

 

Tiger Airways Takes Off Empty Leaving Passengers Behind

 

MELBOURNE, Oct 26 (Bernama) -- Intending passengers were left angry after a Tiger Airways plane flew to Melbourne from Hobart without them after a flight attendant fell ill, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported.

 

The 140 passengers were left at Hobart airport last Friday night and many were stranded for three days while waiting for seats on the one-flight-a-day Tiger service to Melbourne.

 

The flight attendant at the centre of the incident was attended to by paramedics at the airport and later joined the empty flight back to Melbourne with other crew.

 

A Tiger spokeswoman told AAP that under air safety regulations planes must have a certain number of cabin crew before they could fly with passengers.

 

No replacement for the sick steward on Flight TT567 was available in Hobart.

 

The plane left Hobart for Melbourne without passengers because it had to service other routes the next day from 6am, the spokeswoman said.

 

Passengers who missed connecting interstate flights included an intending best man at a wedding and a man who had planned to welcome his daughter-in-law home from overseas.

 

-- BERNAMA

http://bernama.com/bernama/v5/news_lite.php?id=449857

[Kenneth Chong WT 0]

Having watch an Auusie show, "Airport" or something, I concluded never to fly TT...I know you do not have a base in Hobart and I know you can't fly your plane for safety reasons...but can't you fly in your crew say on another carrier? Sure in could a bit late, but surely it means flying out your passengers at the end of the day right?

 

Maybe I am not in the aviation industry so, I really know nothing about how they operate, but there is at least some logic and reasoning that you can very quickly put in place to honour your promise to those with a paid ticket. Surely some would argue that TT is responsible to ferry all the pax out eventually, but the problem remains...damage is done.

 

Say i have an airline operating KCH-BTU vv and My crew is sick,I would quickly by any means possible fly in an extra crew from my KCH base on a different airline. making sure 1.- the original set of crew do not exceed their flying time and 2.- the plane would be back at base to fly the next sector, despite being late.

 

My 2 cents....

[Ryan Soh 3]

The problem with these LCC operations is that their aircraft scheduling is so tight! One delay here will cascade down to the entire operations. So TT perhaps made a calculated decision, rather delay the Hobart 100+ passengers than to have 1000+ passengers delayed due to the cascaded issue.

[Ignatius 4]

Route Expansion = Tight Scheduling. However Route Expansion - fleet expansion = 140 angry passenger at Hobart

[Radzi 2]

Cut cost. Use minimum number of crew.

 

Is this fiasco cheaper than having one extra crew per flight?

[Tony 1]

Cut cost. Use minimum number of crew.

 

Is this fiasco cheaper than having one extra crew per flight?

 

Probably does cost a lot more to their bottomline.

 

What Kenneth said makes perfect sense to me. Fly another crew into Hobart, put signed in crew on day rest, and then operate the delayed flight out of Hobart a few hours later with crew on discretion. At least this way the crew and the 140 pax can all go home. Still might be a bit later than scheduled, but must be way better than a 3-day delay!

[Waiping 12]

Heard from the news that another Tiger got problem and in Australia. Engine caught fire but nobody was hurt.

[Naim 6]

Heard from the news that another Tiger got problem and in Australia. Engine caught fire but nobody was hurt.

 

Oh, that's Jetstar (last Sunday one got grounded in DRW due to hyraulics).

 

===

 

Air crew praised for engine fire response

Article from: AAP

 

October 28, 2009 01:56pm

 

AN engine fire on a Jetstar flight forced the emergency evacuation of its 170 passengers after it landed at Newcastle airport.

 

The No. 1 engine on the left side of the Airbus A320 caught fire briefly as the plane landed at the regional New South Wales airport about 6.30pm (AEDT) yesterday after a flight from Brisbane.

 

A Jetstar spokesman said the emergency evacuation began when a ground crew worker and the pilots became aware of the fire.

 

Passengers were moved from the plane without their carry-on baggage as a safety precaution.

 

The fire is believed to have been caused by a small amount of excess jet fuel around the engine.

 

The incident lasted only a few seconds, the spokesman said, adding the fire extinguished itself.

 

No one was injured during the incident.

 

Passengers booked on the plane's return flight to Brisbane were given overnight accommodation while the aircraft was inspected.

 

The plane would remain grounded until safety checks were completed and the cause of the fire was determined, the airline spokesman said.

 

Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan commended the pilots and crew for their handling of the incident.

 

"I think the crew and the pilots have acted exactly the way they should do in terms of safety first and putting the passengers' wellbeing ahead of anything else,'' Mr Buchanan said in Sydney today.

 

"You never know with these incidents. It could be something more serious and it's easy in hindsight to look back and say it's a minor issue but at the time the pilot has taken the right action.''

Mr Buchanan said the pilots had shut down the engine as per normal procedures and ``what's supposed to happen is that the computer is supposed to shut off the fuel valve''.

 

"That hasn't happened, for whatever reason we don't know why yet that it's been jammed open,'' Mr Buchanan said.

 

"Fuel has flowed in for a split second into the exhaust manifold of the engine and there has effectively been a quick flash, the engine has overheated.

 

"The pilots have seen an overheat warning and said 'look, safety first, let's make sure. This may be nothing (but) let's get everyone off the aircraft'.''

 

Mr Buchanan said neither Jetstar's manufacturing crew or aircraft manufacturer Airbus could recall previous examples of this type of incident occurring.

 

The engine was taken away for further testing.

 

Mr Buchanan said he expected the aircraft to return to the skies tomorrow fitted with a new engine.

 

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26271965-5005962,00.html