The public is entitled to be better informed about the gravity of the failure of Qantas to carry out its compulsory obligation to strengthen a pressure bulkhead on the six Boeing 737-400s that it grounded two nights ago.
The executive general manager engineering at Qantas, David Cox, has been left to defend the Airline’s’ diminishing reputation in this dangerous farce. Where is departing CEO Dixon, incoming CEO Joyce and chairman Clifford?
Cox has said repeatedly, on radio, television, on line and in print, that the continued operation of the jets which it suddenly grounded had been safe.
That it was just a matter of paperwork. That the one step that was missed (which is integral to the task of preventing the floor under the cockpit rupturing) was “just one of many”.
The five-year-old order to carry out the work Qantas didn’t do was an airworthiness directive. The title is self explanatory: it is compulsory work required to keep a jet airworthy.
Qantas’s dismissal of this process as merely a failure of “paperwork” is astonishing, considering the rigorous conditions attached to such issues in the airline operator certificate or AOC without which Qantas ceases to trade as an airline.
Qantas had these six jets flying for five years in breach of the air safety regulations the Civil Aviation Safety Authority CASA is supposed to monitor and enforce.
The issue was the prevention of cracking due to metal fatigue which could cause a mid air break up.
The Boeing 737-400 is used as a high cycle jet. It generally flies shorter domestic routes each of which is a cycle involving the pressurisation of the jet which is a major focus of maintenance regimes.
So its pressure bulkheads might be stressed and relaxed up to eight times day, compared to once a day on a long haul 747.
Qantas probably flew between 3000 and 4000 people a day on multiple trips between Australian cities for five years on these jets in an illegal condition.
In the US the Federal Aviation Administration fines airlines up to $20,000 per sector per jet in breach of an airworthiness directive.
However, CASA continues to push the Qantas line, that safety wasn’t at issue. This beggars belief. If the inability of the largest Australian airline to carry out compulsory directives isn’t a safety issue, what is?
This cannot continue when is Qantas going to be grounded? When is the Chairman of the board going to take over and sack Geof Dixon he does not thing that there is any systemic problems in Qantas. He should not stay until November. The traveling should not be made to put up with the constant delays and put at risk. The chairman should sack the spin doctors and take responsibiity. It will take a major crash for them to believe that there is a problem. This is too late.
To the average punter. If given the choice between gold plated safety or “cheap air fares”, they will take the cheap air fares every time. If I had a dollar for every time I have had been given a dirty look for saying at BBQ’s or social functions that Australia is paying dearly for its cheap air fares, by bringing up incidents such as the above as an example I would be a rich man.
Greg, It’s a good point until you get into the records. None of the major low fare airlines have had a passenger fatality. Southwest, flying since 1972, has more than 400 737s in service. Ryanair and easyJet are all much larger than Virgin Blue, Jetstar or of course Tiger. There is no statistical link between the LCC models we see in this country, Europe or North America and higher accident rates. What they have done in my view is to stress the legacy carriers,which may go for deep cost cutting as an easier fix than a total restructuring of their operations. Qantas is a carrier which has set out to do both of these things. The ‘discussion’ that rages in our airline sector is whether or not Qantas has damaged its truly priceless reputation for excellence in operations by hacking too deeply into maintenance and standards.
Very worrying indeed and more so if one considers this could be the tip of the iceberg!
Exploding oxygen bottles, engine and air-con shutdowns, nose cones and bulkheads without airworthy certification, engine body panels falling off, water leaking onto wiring, blocked sinks and toilets. Qantas has all the signs of major maintenance issues yet even this morning the company continues to deny there is cost-cutting or flight safety ‘repercussions’! If Pan Pharmaceuticals was shut down overnight, then why not at the very least call for a full safety audit of the national airline’s fleet. It carries more than 200-million passengers each year or aren’t they good reason?