QANTAS

Qantas has long enjoyed a reputation for safety with the fact that they have never experienced a fatal jet aircraft accident often quoted. In truth you have to go back to the early 1940s to find any air fatalities at Qantas in the days of flying boats and biplanes.



Has new senior management changed things so much at the airline that the aforementioned claim is looking shaky?


Following a dispute with members of the Professional Engineers Union which imposed overtime bans on certifying airworthiness of repairs the airline has experienced regular problems.


Engine surge issues stared in March on their 747s, followed by tyre blow outs (not uncommon) in the same month and cracked windows (not uncommon) in April in which the Company experienced more engine surge problems.


Mechanical failures are apparently no longer uncommon to the airline which is all the more worrying considering that in August the European Aviation Safety Agency issued a warning to Qantas pertaining to excessive wear in the Rolls Royce Trent engines used on their Airbus A380s.


This is just a suggestion but Qantas, Airbus 380 and Rolls Royce Trent engines are a combination that might be best avoided at this moment in time.