News of Use for Air Travelers

On November 4, 2010, Qantas flight QF 32, VH-OQA left Singapore’s Changi Airport after a stopover on its scheduled London to Sydney route. Four minutes after takeoff, while climbing to its cruising altitude of about 37,000 feet with an almost full complement of 440 passengers and 29 crew members, the aircraft’s #2 engine, left side inboard, suffered an “uncontained engine failure,” a prettier way of saying “it blew apart,” while passing over the island of Batam, Indonesia. One of the turbine discs on the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine disintegrated and caused massive damage to the wing, fuel system, landing gear, flight controls, and the controls for the #1 engine, the left-hand outboard engine. It was thanks to the great skill and determination of the five pilots to bring the mammoth plane back to Singapore that, one hour and 44 minutes after the explosion, the plane touched down safely without any injuries (not counting nails bitten to the quick). The damages to the plane were very extensive and so far, it has been 14 months and about US$130 million since the incident. A large section of the wing skin had to be removed, and structural components holding the engine mount have been exposed. As a result, some very disturbing discoveries have been made. Technicians and engineers have discovered cracks in the wing ribs of the aircraft, cracks that the Airbus and Qantas public relations people scoff at, as they are only 1 cm long and barely visible. And, I might add, on an unimportant section of the aircraft known as “The Wing.” It has two wings, I guess for redundancy, and there are two engines on that side. Surely, with their skilled pilots, they can bring it in on one wing and one prayer.It is expected that eventually Airbus will issue a service bulletin to all operators of the type to have a look at the situation during their first heavy maintenance cycle, when the plane is four years old. Since the original discovery, four other aircraft have been found with similar problems, but considering the difficulty of accessing the locations where the cracks are likely to occur, it may be safely assumed that it is a system wide problem not isolated to a single aircraft. It appears that the lessons learned from the early British DH 106 Comet 1 do not apply to Airbus. The history of the Comet was a spectacular rise and crash. It first flew in 1949, entering service with BOAC, today’s British Airways, on the second of May 1952.It offered speed and comfort with a pressurized cabin and big windows, big square windows, which ended up developing tiny little stress cracks that led to catastrophic decompression and the demise of the Comet 1. It was not until several years later that a newly designed airframe was built and delivered to BOAC, but by then they had lost their lead in jet aircraft design. The new four engine Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8 had better economics as well as improved payloads.The real good news is that as of this writing, commercial aviation has enjoyed the longest period of operating without a single fatality, over eighty days, and 2011 was the safest year on record, with less than a full jumbo jet worth of people losing their lives in aviation accidents. The number zero would be the greatest achievement, and I consider it possible.Africa, long a leader in air unsafety, is slowly upgrading its infrastructure and aircraft inventory. As competing airlines in developed nations are continuously upgrading their equipment to more fuel efficient models, a slew of Boeing 757’s and 737’s as well as earlier versions of single aisle airbus jets are being  made available to airlines in lesser developed nations. Another factor in play is that there currently is a good supply of highly trained western pilots available, who, when paired with local talent, can teach good cockpit discipline as well as flying, and more importantly, landing skills.[image: de Havilland 106 Comet 1, via Wikipedia]I encourage you to write to me, jamie@expatdailynews.com with any questions or suggestions you may have, and if necessary, we can establish a voice communication via Skype. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel related business. My advice is based on my own experiences, and is free of charge. (Donations accepted). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.Jamie Douglas is an Adventurer, Writer and Photographer with an amazing array of Nikon equipment, and a lifetime of experience traveling and documenting. To contact him for assignments, email: jamie.douglas [at] yahoo.comSee more expat articles by Jamie at

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