Fifth Qantas safety scare as passenger farts in first class

OK, so the oxygen bottle incident on the Melbourne-bound Qantas 747 last week was serious, and it was very fortunate that no passengers were hurt or even killed.

But, as is often the case when these things occur, the media tried to follow it up with other incidents to make out that there’s some kind of problem or epidemic. So it was that the news oeganisations went berserk when a Qantas jet returned to Adelaide because an undercarriage door failed to close - to be fair you’d only ever return to Adelaide in the case of a dire emergency but Qantas admits there was no danger to passengers. There were reports from “passengers” that there was mayhem in the cabin, but this proved to be utter bullshit.

All episodes like this come in threes if you look hard and sure enough it happened when a Qantas jet had to return to Sydney after a hydraulic leak caused oil to mist from the wing. The aircraft has three back-up hydralic systems so again there was never any danger to the aircraft or those on board.

Then today there was a fourth incident for the week which, according to The Australian,  a Tokyo-bound 747 was grounded at the last minute so it can change a faulty part, and passengers have been told to wait at Sydney Airport while the part is replaced and tested.

How is that a fucking safety scare? That fact the problem was found during a routine inspection shows safety at work.

Things like this happen to aircraft every day and to start lumping every tiny incident like this into a dossier of “embarrassing safety gaffes” is stupid reporting to say the least.

Stop insulting our intelligence and fuck off.

Qantas is not the only airline to have the yips in the past couple of weeks:

On July 20, a Northwest Airlines Boeing 757 made an emergency landing in Tampa Florida when a engine computer failed.

On July 29 A Vietnam Alirlines Boeing 777 made an emergency landing in Tokyo after an engine caught fire.

On July 31 Cathay Pacific Boeing 747 landed in Vancouver safely after sustaining damage to its fuselage in flight.

On August 2 a Russian Red Wings Airline Tupolev Tu-204 airliner made an emergency airliner in Minsk after an engine engine failure.

On August 3, a United Airlines Boeing 777 flying from Beijing to San Fransisco had to return to China because of a faulty landing gear.

Go to Gallipoli any day but Anzac Day

One of the first things that struck me was there were no birds. In fact, apart from the wind and the gentle lapping of the water on to the pebbled beach at Anzac Cove, there wasn’t a sound to be heard as though, even 90 years after the last shots were fired at Gallipoli, the birds still know to stay away.

The silence is as moving as Attaturk’s message to the Anzacs and the lines of graves of dead teenagers. For this place to be exclusive to the handful of us who were there seemed like a privilege and in no time you’re consumed by the quiet and able to communicate and share emotions without saying a single word.

This is what makes Gallipoli so special, which is why I  don’t understand why anyone would want to share it with tens of thousands of others on Anzac Day, where that spiritual calm is lost in an almost theme park atmosphere.

I write this because Victoria University academic and Gallipoli expert Anne-Marie Hede, has called to put an end to the annual Anzac celebrations at Anzac Cove because it’s becoming unsustainable with thousands of tourists, big screens, seating, lighting and portable toilets ruining Anzac Cove.

Professor Hede will probably cop a barrage for suggesting Anzac Day celebrations remain in Australia, but while I gree with her I don’t write this to defend her but to recommend that it’s the peaceful solitude is what makes Gallipoli so eerily sacred and not the day that we have chosen to celebrate it.

The courage, suffering and death didn’t stop after April 25, which is why every day at Gallipoli is sacred, as the various dates on the headstones testify.

Picture: The Age