Ben Sandilands
Editor of Plane Talking @PlaneTalking
Ben Sandilands has reported and analysed the mechanical mobility of humanity since late 1960 - the end of the age of great scheduled ocean liners and coastal steamers and the start of the jet age. He’s worked in newspapers, radio and TV in a wide range of roles as a journalist at home and abroad for 56 years, the last 18 freelance.
When Continental, one of the few US airlines to order the 787 Dreamliner, publicly contradicts Boeing over its latest guidance about how late the plastic jet is going to be, the impact on Qantas becomes more painfully obvious.
For industry watchers the publication of the latest newsletter from the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association may qualify as a collector's edition. It overtly says the same things that voices within Qantas have covertly been saying about Singapore Airlines, reports Ben Sandilands.
Those familiar with basic aviation law are stunned by the continued evasion by the ATSB, CASA and the Qantas Group of full disclosure of a critical issue in the botched Jetstar go-around at Melbourne Airport on July 21, 2007. Ben Sandilands explains.
The controllability of the Airbus A380 -- Qantas flight QF32 on November 4 -- when a Rolls-Royce engine disintegrated after taking off from Singapore was a constant issue for its pilots, according to the preliminary report into the incident by the ATSB.
When I became a reporter, on this day in 1960, the great ocean liners still sailed regularly to Europe and North America, and was it possible to take a ship between most of the capital cities.
The management mindset that risks the lives of hundreds of Australian air travellers in a crash in the next 10 years is abundantly on display in carrier and regulator submissions to the Senate inquiry into pilot training and airline safety.
Jetstar has been struggling all morning to reconcile its claims that pilots are encouraged to raise safety issues after sacking a first officer, Joe Eakins, who did just that, in an opinion piece published by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in October.
The pilot union says it will fight the Qantas Group all the way up to the High Court over its dismissal of a Jetstar first officer, Joe Eakins for writing an article critical of the Jetstar’s cost cutting culture in terms of safety implications, reports Ben Sandilands.
There will be tens of thousands of opportunities at all domestic and international terminals in Australia today for baggage handlers, cleaners, caterers, retailers, refuellers, police officers and security company staff to pass bombs, guns, knives, and vials of germs to passengers once they have passed through the security checks.
In what may not seem completely reassuring for passengers, Qantas is resuming A380 flights to London from Saturday but isn’t yet game to trust the giant airliner on trans-Pacific flights.
