SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Qantas Airways suffered its second safety scare in less than a week when a landing gear door failed to close, prompting a precautionary landing just three days after a near-disaster aboard an international flight that forced an emergency landing in the Philippines.
Qantas insisted Monday's landing in Adelaide, Australia, was strictly a precaution and the plane was never in danger, but passengers already jittery over the Philippines incident described panic inside the Melbourne-bound plane after the pilot announced there was a problem.
"It was absolute chaos on the plane, and then they had to turn it around and bring it back to Adelaide," passenger Gunter Kubler of South Africa told The Daily Telegraph. "They had to bring in another plane to fly people back, but I don't trust them, so I will take a bus or a train to Melbourne."
Airline spokeswoman Sophia Connolly on Tuesday insisted everyone on board the flight remained calm.
"Qantas flight 692 operating between Adelaide and Melbourne performed a routine 'air turn-back' shortly after takeoff, due to an indication of one of the landing gear doors failing to retract," Connolly said, reading a prepared statement.
What's up with this? Well, at least it didn't land in an airport in the Philippines - not like the last time (and at least there weren't any explosions!)
Oh, and it's good that nobody got hurt in either of these accidents (despite the explosions!).
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source) shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN! Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people - PeZook Shroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
It's 'just' a landing gear malfunction - essentially a door didn't close, so they turned back to be on the safe side. This one's not really a huge drama, just a pain in the arse for everyone involved. It probably wouldn't even be considered particularly newsworthy if it hadn't come on the tail of the last one.
That said, I haven't flown Qantas in years. Virgin is cheaper and has better service (even if you do have to pay for the food). Eight years ago, I probably would have chosen Qantas, but they've been going downhill recently.
"I would say that the above post is off-topic, except that I'm not sure what the topic of this thread is, and I don't think anybody else is sure either."
- Darth Wong Free Durian - Last updated 27 Dec
"Why does it look like you are in China or something?" - havokeff
Flying on and off the island, Jetstar is cheapest outbound and Virgin cheapest return(travel between here and Sydney several times a year). So we fly with both, and no complaints about either of them. This is particularly amazing in the case of the return runs on Virgin, because we usually catch early evening flights home, and they will frequently bump flights to Hobart until very late because there are no noise/time restrictions at Hobart International, so we get stiffed when there's a screwup somewhere during the day. Several times a week I will have half a planeload of people arriving at the hotel after 1am from flights that were supposed to arrive at around 8-9pm.
See, when I fly, it's usually Adelaide-Melbourne, and Jetstar can take their Avalon terminal and shove it up their arse. If they're going to land me in Geelong, then I might as well just take the train.
"I would say that the above post is off-topic, except that I'm not sure what the topic of this thread is, and I don't think anybody else is sure either."
- Darth Wong Free Durian - Last updated 27 Dec
"Why does it look like you are in China or something?" - havokeff
"
- PeZook
