Jetstar: Flight attendant in Captain’s seat

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A Jetstar flight attendant has been photographed in the Captain’s seat of an Airbus airliner in what appears to be level flight. Crikey’s Ben Sandilands originally reported the photographs on Tuesday, and the pictures have created a bit of a buzz in aviation forums and in various media as journalists and uneducated media commentators banter [...]

QF30 ATSB report & rapid descent video

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The preliminary occurrence report into the Qantas 747 (VH-OJK) that suffered an explosive depressurisation 475 km northwest of Manila has been released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and with it, more images of the oxygen cylinders that allegedly caused the incident. From the ATSB report: “After clearing the baggage and cargo from the [...]

Cathay Pacific Low Pass – January 2008

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On January 20, 2008, 55-year-old Cathay Pacific Captain Ian Wilkinson and his 48-year-old co-pilot Ray Middleton took delivery of a brand new 777-300ER from the Boeing factory in Seattle. As part of the acceptance ceremony, the two pilots made a low pass of the runway complex before continuing with their onwards journey. Cathay Pacific chairman [...]

Garuda Indonesia Flight 200 & Captain John Bartels (JB)

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John Bartels was the Captain on board QF30 when it suffered an explosive depressurisation enroute from Hong Kong to Melbourne on July 25, 2008 – forcing the diversion of his 747-400 into Manilla. John Bartels is know to the aus.aviation Usenet community as JB, and was an active and highly respected community member until he [...]

V Australia – more pics and new TV campaign

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Attached are a few more pics of V Australia’s first Boeing 777-300ER on the production line at Boeing. Also attached are some photos of V Australia’s appearance at the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Annual Convention & Trade Show. NBTA is a source for critical information on the business travel industry, with over 2,700 global [...]

Shame, Qantas. Shame!

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Derryn Hinch is a well-known Australian journalist and media personality. He hosts a daily drive show on Melbourne’s 3AW, and today’s show was focused on Qantas and the long list of engineering and management related issues that has instigated extremely adverse public, media and regulatory scrutiny.

World Airline Awards 2008 (Qantas & Virgin Blue)

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The results from the Skytrax World Airline Awards are in and both Qantas Airlines and Virgin Blue have made an honourable presence in the top rankings alongside some of the world’s respected airlines… reinforcing what we Aussies already know – that our airlines are among the world’s best!

V Australia and first 777-300ER pics

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V Australia is Australia’s newest entry into the international airline market. Following the success of the open skies agreement between Australia and the USA, the airspace overlying the big pond between the two countries is now heavily liberalised, meaning that the carriage of both people and cargo across the Pacific is finally open to the [...]

Qantas morale (& more QF30 pics)

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If it sounds like I have unfairly criticised Qantas lately – I apologise. It’s hard not to criticise an airline that makes such a good job of doing a bad job! It was around this time nearly 19 years ago as a young and dumb kid that I was informally indoctrinated into aviation after I [...]

QF30 and CASA

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I’ve come across a few images of the Qantas 747, VH-OJK, which suffered an explosive decompression on July 25 as a result of a rogue oxygen container that damaged the forward starboard cargo compartment in flight. The oxygen cylinder (or should we call it a missile?) bounced around the cabin a little before it knocked [...]

Ryanair: Beds and Blowjobs

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Ryanair appeal to a minority audience. Since their minority backpacking audience will fly with them regardless of Ryanair’s approach to air travel or their advertising (because of the perceived low costs) they can get away with offending anybody outside of their target market in the name of brand awareness. Their rude, crude and distasteful approach [...]

Final boarding call for Al Qaeda & Terrorist

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During the early years of The Simpsons, a popular recurring gag involved young Bart making prank calls to bartender Moe at Moe’s Tavern. Bart would call Moe and ask for a non-existant person whose name was one that spelled a less than flattering phrase. Moe would shout for the fictitious person that Bart asked for [...]