One Two Go, When, When, When?

[alanmorison]

WE NOW know that a Qantas Boeing 747 flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne made an emergency landing in Manila last Friday.

An oxygen bottle exploded in midair, blasting a hole through the fuselage and forcing the pilot to make a hurried landing expertly, without the usual instrumentation.

That's alarming. But it's great to know what really happened, and all within a week, too.

Hey, what about that far more serious incident, the One-Two-Go crash on Phuket on September 16 last year?

What caused that? Was it pilot error, the bad weather, a problem with the ageing aircraft, or a combination of some or all of those elements?

Er . . . we don't know. Or rather, someone probably knows. But we haven't been told.

The Australian authorities acted quickly to determine the cause of the potentially tragic explosion and to reassure passengers everywhere that flying is, essentially, still safe.

Within a week, we learned enough to be prepared to fly again. But the One-Two-Go crash on Phuket that killed 90 passengers and crew 10 months ago?

We know next to nothing about the cause of that tragedy. The one-year anniversary is due in a few weeks.

Relatives and friends will put flowers on the graves of the victims without knowing what caused their loss.

And we understand from reliable sources that it could be - wait for it - perhaps next year, 2009, before the Department of Civil Aviation in Thailand releases what it has discovered about the crash.

Next year!

No explanation for the delay. Not even a rough idea as to what's going on in secrecy behind closed doors in Bangkok and the US, where the black box went for examination.

Yet we are all expected to happily take to the air again as if nothing ever happened.

Now isn't that amazing?

-- More at www.phuketwan.com

[simon43]

One point that I read on the pilots forum and IU website is that the earth bank that the plane slammed into should not even be there! Apparently, international aviation rules state that there should be no 'tangible' obstructions within 100 metres of the runway. That earth bank is 35 metres from the runway...

So, had there been no tangible obstructions within 100 metres, it's realistic to assume that the plane would have lost some of it's momentum whilst sliding along the ground for 100 metres - and that there may have been more survivors.

Sobering thought.

Simon

[Sir Burr]

Most aircraft accident investigations (even in the USA) take between one, to two years before they publish the official report.

Seems the 1-2-go accident was a combination of bad weather, weather radars at the airport not functioning and incompetent and tired pilots.

[alanmorison]

Most aircraft accident investigations (even in the USA) take between one, to two years before they publish the official report.

Seems the 1-2-go accident was a combination of bad weather, weather radars at the airport not functioning and incompetent and tired pilots.

We don't know the cause, and as the flying public, we need to know. Guesswork doesn't cut the mustard when it comes to disasters that may have been avoidable. 'Accident' is not a word I would use for this kind of crash. 'Accident' implies that all precautions were taken and it just happened anyway. Loss of aircraft in the sea or over jungle, or where the plane is smashed to smithereens, clearly take longer to resolve than cases like this one, where all the remaining pieces are available and the factors are largely known. For goodness sakes, the pilot is already on trial for a similar crash of a similar scale in Indonesia that took place in March last year. Something is not right.

[Sir Burr]

Welll.......I guess you'll have to wait for the official report to be released if you won't accept guesses.

It's not like 1-2-Go are a danger to anyone, they've been suspended.