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.
Yesterday my blog Plane Talking published images of the aftermath of a fire that caused the emergency landing of Dreamliner No 2 at Laredo Texas on November 9. Today Crikey was ordered to remove the images, a directive also given to the Seattle Times and two aviation blogs in the US: Dear Mr Sandilands Photographs […]
Airbus is seeking compensation from Rolls-Royce for the additional costs it is incurring because of the serious issues that have emerged with the Trent 900 engine used by Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa on their A380 fleets, reports Ben Sandilands.
The Airbus presentation to accident investigators of the damage done to QF32 on November 4 gives new technical insights into this near disaster involving a Qantas A380 with 466 persons on board. The examination of the damage is far from complete, as the presentation makes clear. It doesn’t deal with the other dimensions of this […]
Another serious problem has beset the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which is supposed to be the key to Qantas retiring its aging Boeing 767s, one of which was forced to turn back to Perth on Friday with an engine problem.
US security procedures for passengers who refuse body scans by machine are now being given pat downs that would bring a charge of s-xual molestation or indecent assault in most criminal jurisdictions.
Critical safety and regulatory issues for all airlines are now coming into focus. Like the massive migration of airliner maintenance to consolidated service providers, and the dangers that arise where the designer and maker of something as critical as an engine also promises the earth in taking on its lifetime care.
What are the ramifications for passengers and for Qantas after the airline's most recent incident out of Singapore? The Crikey Clarifier explains.
If there is one incident top of mind for Qantas and other A380 operators today it is the Air France Concorde disaster of July 25, 2000, when debris punctured a fuel tank on takeoff from Paris and it crashed with the loss of all 109 people on board and killed a further four on the ground.
An obscure faint comet, now known as Hartley 2, will have its moment of fame in the midnight hour of this Friday morning, explains Ben Sandilands.
A Senate inquiry into airline flight crew training and standards in Australia has turned into a last-ditch stand by "the old Qantas" culture against "the new" Jetstar culture.
