WORRIED Qantas cabin crew have demanded a meeting with company officials as another of the airline's jets was forced to make an emergency landing yesterday.
The Manila-bound 767 began leaking hydraulic fluid from a critical steering unit on take-off from Sydney yesterday and had to circle out over the ocean to dump fuel before returning to Sydney Airport to make an emergency landing just over an hour later.
It is the third midair emergency for the carrier in eight days. A Melbourne-bound Qantas Boeing 747 was forced to make an emergency landing in Manila when an oxygen bottle exploded, tearing a hole in the fuselage on July 25. Then, on Monday, a Melbourne-bound Boeing 737-800 left Adelaide and returned 37 minutes later after a door opened.
Qantas cabin crew are concerned at the spate of recent incidents and will meet airline officials this week to be briefed on the QF30 explosion.
Flight Attendants Association president Steven Reed said last night: "It's disturbing."
"At the end of the day we just don't know - we are in the hands of Qantas as to whether [these incidents] are part of a pattern we should be concerned about. We have asked the company for a briefing to tell us what's going on. Our members are concerned, but they are not concerned enough that they wouldn't be prepared to go to work."
During the recent maintenance dispute, the Qantas engineers argued that cost-cutting and moving some plane servicing overseas could put safety at risk.
Captain Ian Woods, the Australian and International Pilots Association president, said the incidents were not a "trend" but had been highlighted due to increased media scrutiny.
"I think it's a tick in the box for Qantas because they operate to such high safety standards," he said.
Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said of yesterday's drama: "The air traffic controllers contacted the pilot when they thought they saw smoke coming from the back of the aircraft."
Checks revealed it was hydraulic fluid coming from a spoiler actuator near the wing.
"The pilots would have had a warning from the flight-management system. The pilot decided to return to Sydney. They flew out over the ocean to dump fuel because they were overweight for landing."
The flight was brought back in on the airport's longest runway as the pilots ran emergency checks during landing. One of the 200 passengers aboard QF19 said the plane was "very low in the sky" after take-off.
"About five minutes after taking off it was very obvious the plane was very low in the sky … It was very strange," said the man, a frequent flyer.
He said the passengers were informed by the crew that the airport control tower had seen "stuff leaking from the plane" as it was taking off.
He said the passengers were professionally handled, but that they had not been kept fully informed during the flight.
"For 45 minutes we did not know what was going on. There was an announcement once every 40 minutes. The plane circled for about an hour-and-a-half dumping fuel from the plane."
Mr Gibson said the passengers had not been in any danger.
"The 767 has three independent hydraulic systems on board so that if one springs a leak there are two others to back it up. The safety of the aircraft was not at risk," he said.
A Qantas spokesperson said: "There was no safety issue at any time. The Qantas Group operates more than 330,000 sectors each year and air turnbacks are extremely rare."
The 767 plane was being inspected by engineers. 2008: THE PROBLEMS SO FAR January 7 Flight QF 2 with 344 passengers on board was about 15 minutes from Bangkok on the way from London to Sydney when the jumbo lost main electrical power and landed on battery back-up.
January 13 A Boeing 747 makes an emergency landing in Hawaii after an oxygen leak. QF93 was carrying more than 200 passengers on the way from Melbourne to LA.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff