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AUSTRALIA 
Captain forced to dump fuel before emergency landing
Sunday, 3 August, 2008
Qantas cabin crew are demanding a meeting with company officials after another emergency landing. (AAP)
Qantas cabin crew are demanding a meeting with company officials after another of the airline's jets was forced to make an emergency landing yesterday.
The Manila-bound 767 began leaking hydraulic fluid from a critical steering unit on take-off from Sydney and had to circle out over the ocean to dump fuel before returning to Sydney Airport.
It's the third midair emergency for the carrier in eight days, but air authorities say there is nothing to suggest any link between the incidents or any lowering of safety standards.
The Flight Attendants Association has told Fairfax the latest incident is disturbing, amid concern cost-cutting and the moving of some plane servicing overseas could be putting safety at risk.
Emergency landing
The captain of a Qantas 767 flight was forced to dump fuel before making an emergency landing.
A leak in the wing was detected on the Manila-bound Qantas flight QF 19, a Boeing 767 300 with 200 passengers on board, shortly after take off from Sydney at 1.20pm (AEST) on Saturday, an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) spokeswoman said.
The captain requested emergency clearance before returning to land safely at 3pm.
"Air traffic controllers received a call from the pilot declaring an emergency and proceeded to give priority clearance for a landing at Sydney," An Air Services Australia spokesman told AAP.
Passengers said the plane remained low in the sky for about five minutes after take-off and dumped fuel over the ocean east of Sydney before circling for more than an hour.
"About five minutes after taking off it was very obvious the plane was very low in the sky. ... It was very strange," a passenger told Fairfax.
"For 45 minutes we did not know what was going on."
‘Precautionary return’
The ATSB said the aircraft made a "precautionary return" to Sydney and landed without incident.
Qantas confirmed the leak was not detected before the plane took off.
"On inspection, engineers determined that fluid was coming from the spoiler actuator that was not evident before departure," a Qantas spokeswoman told AAP.
The spoiler is situated on top of the wing to slow the aircraft down. The actuator is a mechanism which moves the spoiler.
"There was no safety issue at any time," the spokeswoman said.
Passengers were transferred to another aircraft which left Sydney for Manila about 5.45pm
(AEST).
The ATSB is awaiting a report from Qantas engineers before deciding whether to launch an investigation into the incident.
An ATSB spokeswoman said all backup systems had worked normally.
Qantas woes
It comes a week after an explosion blew a hole in a Qantas jet flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Manila.
On Tuesday a Melbourne-bound Boeing 737-800 departed Adelaide at 6.08pm (AEST) and returned 37 minutes later after a door opened during a flight to Melbourne.
Qantas was yesterday completing checks on oxygen bottles on its fleet of Boeing 747s.
A CASA spokesman said there was no evidence of any lowering of safety standards at Qantas and the last audit did not detect any "significant safety issues".
Source: AAP
The Manila-bound 767 began leaking hydraulic fluid from a critical steering unit on take-off from Sydney and had to circle out over the ocean to dump fuel before returning to Sydney Airport.
It's the third midair emergency for the carrier in eight days, but air authorities say there is nothing to suggest any link between the incidents or any lowering of safety standards.
The Flight Attendants Association has told Fairfax the latest incident is disturbing, amid concern cost-cutting and the moving of some plane servicing overseas could be putting safety at risk.
Emergency landing
The captain of a Qantas 767 flight was forced to dump fuel before making an emergency landing.
A leak in the wing was detected on the Manila-bound Qantas flight QF 19, a Boeing 767 300 with 200 passengers on board, shortly after take off from Sydney at 1.20pm (AEST) on Saturday, an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) spokeswoman said.
The captain requested emergency clearance before returning to land safely at 3pm.
"Air traffic controllers received a call from the pilot declaring an emergency and proceeded to give priority clearance for a landing at Sydney," An Air Services Australia spokesman told AAP.
Passengers said the plane remained low in the sky for about five minutes after take-off and dumped fuel over the ocean east of Sydney before circling for more than an hour.
"About five minutes after taking off it was very obvious the plane was very low in the sky. ... It was very strange," a passenger told Fairfax.
"For 45 minutes we did not know what was going on."
‘Precautionary return’
The ATSB said the aircraft made a "precautionary return" to Sydney and landed without incident.
Qantas confirmed the leak was not detected before the plane took off.
"On inspection, engineers determined that fluid was coming from the spoiler actuator that was not evident before departure," a Qantas spokeswoman told AAP.
The spoiler is situated on top of the wing to slow the aircraft down. The actuator is a mechanism which moves the spoiler.
"There was no safety issue at any time," the spokeswoman said.
Passengers were transferred to another aircraft which left Sydney for Manila about 5.45pm
(AEST).
The ATSB is awaiting a report from Qantas engineers before deciding whether to launch an investigation into the incident.
An ATSB spokeswoman said all backup systems had worked normally.
Qantas woes
It comes a week after an explosion blew a hole in a Qantas jet flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Manila.
On Tuesday a Melbourne-bound Boeing 737-800 departed Adelaide at 6.08pm (AEST) and returned 37 minutes later after a door opened during a flight to Melbourne.
Qantas was yesterday completing checks on oxygen bottles on its fleet of Boeing 747s.
A CASA spokesman said there was no evidence of any lowering of safety standards at Qantas and the last audit did not detect any "significant safety issues".
Source: AAP
