Thursday, November 04, 2010

Qantas emergency

About three hours ago a Qantas A380 had to turn back and make an emergency landing at Singapore's Changi Airport after what they said was "an issue with an engine"

Some issue:




Thankfully all 459 people on board are safe and uninjured.

I've just heard a telephone interview with a passenger who'd just arrived in the terminal at Changi. He said they heard two bangs and saw debris flying off.

But he also said there was no panic on board because the passengers were kept informed quickly and regularly. The information was also given in German because there were a lot of German passengers, according to a passenger I'm listening to as I type.

A Qantas spokeswoman was also quickly on radio reporting everything they knew at the time.

Full marks for that. Lack of communication is usually the main complaint of people, something Qantas used to be guilty of like so many other companies.

Very quickly, Qantas have announced that their entire A380 fleet is grounded until they know exactly what caused the engine to fail.

The superjumbo was climbing after taking off from Changi and it was fortunate that no-one was hurt on the Indonesian island of Batam, because this lot landed there:




Some of the debris apparently went through the roof of a school and although there were children inside no-one was hurt.

I found the photos here.

3 comments:

Doug said...

Completely unrelated, but I found this and thought of you...

http://www.al-emarati.com/2010/11/why-i-liked-saddam.html

An Emirati praises Saddam Hussain (slightly tongue in cheek) because he gassed Iraqis, and then suggests that crimes committed by foreigners against Emiratis should be punished by the death penalty without trial.

Nice people eh? Obviously the criminals should be punished - and luckily the UAE judiciary seems to be taking the more sensible approach that a proper trial and proportional punishment are more appropriate than simply beheading people for knocking out an Emirati's tooth.

Seabee said...

Doug that's obviously our old blogger troll ultra_blue/ABIT.

It's a mistake for The National to give him space. He, after all, is a complete waste of space.

Dubai Property said...

Thank God that all the passengers have survived and on one got injured after such a huge crisis and accident.