Qantas mishap leaves customers stranded on tarmac for five hours

[oz_mark]

That being said, I'm not sure if the news is playing funny buggers with the times? The plane landed at 8:30pm-ish according to Flightaware, and Gold Coast Airport said the runway was cleared by 10:30pm. Unless they towed them off the runway and then left them there for another three hours...?

Listening to the people on the video, the total time on board was approaching 5 hours, which included the flight and all. Saying that were stuck on the tarmac for 5 hours is not the truth...

 

[Seat0B]

Well even if they could not deplane the pax, there is no reason why water and snacks couldn’t have been delivered to the aircraft - even if the duty manager had to use their company credit card at a shop to buy them. there would surely have been someone with an ASIC (like airport security or the GA sign in people) who could have then ferried it to the plan. And it is surely a major safety issue if no stairs are available for emergency deplaning of pax.

 

[Stone]

Id imagine that OOL has a car park bus, cant imagine the bus driver doesnt have an ASIC - even if not escorts can be arranged

No car park bus (the car parks are closer to the terminal than where the plane was likely to be disabled). If you didn't work air side, you wouldn't have an ASIC.

 

[Happy Trails]

Don't know about buses, but lots of stairs.

 

[luckypierre]

No car park bus (the car parks are closer to the terminal than where the plane was likely to be disabled). If you didn't work air side, you wouldn't have an ASIC.

But the airport can after appropriate process issue a temporary pass and then vehicle could be escorted by a safety officer, under strict instructions.

 

[Franky]

Didn't realise airbridges had been installed at the end of the runway!

I think you know what he meant...

 

[yachty]

At a minimum the airport needs to have a shuttle bus in the unlikely event that there is a bonafide emergency where passengers need to be evacuated. For instance, suppose a flight had to divert to OOL for an engine fire. Chances are once the fire is put out, passengers will need to be evacuated from the aircraft and shuttled to the terminal.

I should also point out that Surfer's Paradise airport is an international airport with it servicing several such flights per day, so the possibility of having to evacuate a wide body with hundreds of passengers is a very real possibility.

I don't think the availability (or lack thereof) of a bus would have any impact in those scenarios. An emergency evacuation is much different to a precautionary one. Almost every airport in the country would have the same issue, by the way. Places like Ballina don't even have a tug to tow the plane off the runway if it happened there...

Listening to the people on the video, the total time on board was approaching 5 hours, which included the flight and all. Saying that were stuck on the tarmac for 5 hours is not the truth...

Gotcha - thanks for pointing this out.

Well even if they could not deplane the pax, there is no reason why water and snacks couldn’t have been delivered to the aircraft - even if the duty manager had to use their company credit card at a shop to buy them. there would surely have been someone with an ASIC (like airport security or the GA sign in people) who could have then ferried it to the plan. And it is surely a major safety issue if no stairs are available for emergency deplaning of pax.

Indeed, surely someone could've popped out with a few slabs of water. But I guess then you'd need stairs, people to move the stairs, around engineers trying to get the plane moving, etc. Presumably the priority was getting them off the runway and to a gate and it wasn't expected to carry on for more than an hour or two. And there are stairs, but this wasn't an emergency.

 

[SeatBackForward]

But the airport can after appropriate process issue a temporary pass and then vehicle could be escorted by a safety officer, under strict instructions.

Or order Uber Eats to the plane, those guys don't seem to care about any rules, and hitch a ride back with them.

 

[Quickstatus]

Uber Eats

KFC the Pines only 15min away

 

[DC3]

Saying that were stuck on the tarmac for 5 hours is not the truth...

So, someone is telling porkies?

 

[elanshin]

Even if the incident was 2 hours, it begs the question, why did it take 2 hours for a tug to pull it into the gate. If they had noticed in the air and had a Pan call, the tug would've met them at the runway and they would have been inside shortly after.

That's the part that is very confusing. Ok, you lost hydraulic controls to steering on the ground, you just call a tug and get to the stand then let the engineers and mechanics sort it out.

 

[SYD]

Even if the incident was 2 hours, it begs the question, why did it take 2 hours for a tug to pull it into the gate. If they had noticed in the air and had a Pan call, the tug would've met them at the runway and they would have been inside shortly after.

That's the part that is very confusing. Ok, you lost hydraulic controls to steering on the ground, you just call a tug and get to the stand then let the engineers and mechanics sort it out.

Steve, the guy with the keys to the tug went to KFC….

 

[RooFlyer]

For me, this comes down to one of my hobbyhorses - contingency. Having an aircraft stranded out on the field somewhere is certainly not an unknown occurrence and something you think they (airport) would have contingency plans for.

Stairs, they surely must have.

it comes down to having a decision tree and a list of phone numbers to call when you need them. Now, maybe they did, and it just worked out to be a very long time, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone looked up and said - 'oh cough, what we do now?'

 

[elanshin]

Steve, the guy with the keys to the tug went to KFC….

I thought about that, then i checked departures out of OOL and there were still plenty around that time.

 

[jrfsp]

Even if the incident was 2 hours, it begs the question, why did it take 2 hours for a tug to pull it into the gate. If they had noticed in the air and had a Pan call, the tug would've met them at the runway and they would have been inside shortly after.

That's the part that is very confusing. Ok, you lost hydraulic controls to steering on the ground, you just call a tug and get to the stand then let the engineers and mechanics sort it out.

I wonder if it required engineers sign off before towing and none are available at OOL (someone had to come from BNE)?

 

[eastwest101]

I wonder if it required engineers sign off before towing and none are available at OOL (someone had to come from BNE)?

That might explain things but the response seems very leisurely to me, as others have pointed out, stairs do exist at OOL airport, busses do exist at Coolangatta somewhere, presumably there are still Qantas staff, emergency response people, and other airport staff still on duty, and this is the exact situation that escort vehicles are around for, to escort vehicles unfamiliar with the airport safely. The runway was already closed, no one was in any imminent danger.

Someone just needed to think out of the box, engage their brain and allocate some resources to get the pax off the plane, down the stairs and to the terminal. Subsequent, inspections and towing and engineering issues can be sorted out later without all the pax being aboard.

 

[anat0l]

This seems like a clear violation of long tarmac delay rules which usually require deplaning after 3 hours. If I was a passenger I’d be calling 000 after the third hour to get off that flight.

You wish there was such a rule, but there isn't in Australia.

That said, even if we had such a rule, it probably wouldn't extricate QF from this situation, who lacked any appropriate infrastructure to get 120 passengers off without activating emergency slides. No one is going to push those stairs all the way out to the runway (because driven stairs don't exist anymore, I think).

It still befuddles me how it took so long to organise a tow, particularly as there would be no action at OOL until the QF aircraft was cleared. This aircraft was holding up everything and causing more operational issues (including diversions) by the minute, and there was no urgency whatsoever on the part of QF, the ground contractor, OOL and all associated support services to get this aircraft to the gate?

If there was a real medical emergency on board, I wonder how fast the action would really have been. (Then again, I have heard of a former member here who may have been close to losing their life when the aircraft landed in SYD but emergency services were being held up from extricating the pax because border control wanted to go through all the paperwork.... for an Australian citizen... <expletive> bureaucrats...)

 

[kangarooflyer88]

You wish there was such a rule, but there isn't in Australia.

Could we please add this to a list of things that need to be added to Australian aviation to make it catch up with the rest of the world (the other thing is implementing the 100 ml liquids rule so that international transfers don't require going through security again).

That said, even if we had such a rule, it probably wouldn't extricate QF from this situation, who lacked any appropriate infrastructure to get 120 passengers off without activating emergency slides.

That's pretty daming if true.

No one is going to push those stairs all the way out to the runway (because driven stairs don't exist anymore, I think).

It is my understanding (and for those in the industry please let me know if I'm mistaken here) that most movable stairs have a tow bar that allows it to be attached to a tug for towing. Oh and yes driven aircraft stairs do exist:

It still befuddles me how it took so long to organise a tow, particularly as there would be no action at OOL until the QF aircraft was cleared. This aircraft was holding up everything and causing more operational issues (including diversions) by the minute, and there was no urgency whatsoever on the part of QF, the ground contractor, OOL and all associated support services to get this aircraft to the gate?

That too surprises me.

If there was a real medical emergency on board, I wonder how fast the action would really have been.

That's the concerning bit. Yes if it was a major airport like SYD or PER then I would expect the response to be quick but heaven help us if you end up with a serious emergency diversion to Surfer's Paradise airport or Alice Springs.

(Then again, I have heard of a former member here who may have been close to losing their life when the aircraft landed in SYD but emergency services were being held up from extricating the pax because border control wanted to go through all the paperwork.... for an Australian citizen... <expletive> bureaucrats...)

Just push past them, what are they gonna do? Arrest you?

-RooFlyer88

 

[Pushka]

I'm going to be the first to state that I would not do very well in this situation.

Post automatically merged: Sep 20, 2023

Listening to the people on the video, the total time on board was approaching 5 hours, which included the flight and all. Saying that were stuck on the tarmac for 5 hours is not the truth...

Ah, that's completely different then.

 

[anat0l]

Could we please add this to a list of things that need to be added to Australian aviation to make it catch up with the rest of the world (the other thing is implementing the 100 ml liquids rule so that international transfers don't require going through security again).

I'd rather keep liquids rule off domestic. Hell, of course, it'd be nicer to do away with it altogether (but everyone would still need to be conscious of it if transiting in another country).

There's quite a few rules that we need in Australia from around the world. No one (especially of any sort of political affiliation) appears to be in a rush to try and implement them, and I really wonder why.

That's pretty daming if true.

It is my understanding (and for those in the industry please let me know if I'm mistaken here) that most movable stairs have a tow bar that allows it to be attached to a tug for towing. Oh and yes driven aircraft stairs do exist:
View attachment 344522

Do they really still have some in Australia? All the air stairs I've seen around the place are no longer motored - they need to be pushed, or as you say can be towed.

That's the concerning bit. Yes if it was a major airport like SYD or PER then I would expect the response to be quick but heaven help us if you end up with a serious emergency diversion to Surfer's Paradise airport or Alice Springs.

Bean counters at work.

The likelihood of a serious medical emergency happening at one of those places seems to be very low, so they wouldn't provision for it. Plus, if a pilot seems to know their marbles, they would examine (with company guidance and medical assistance services on the ground) which airport to divert to so that they could be serviced fast enough to extricate a passenger requiring immediate assistance. That said, I suppose my hypothetical might be farfetched as a diversion to BNE might be more appropriate if there were a passenger requiring immediate medical assistance on an aircraft with operational issues.

Bean counting means that the cost of covering someone who dies because there wasn't appropriate infrastructure in place to save the passenger in time would be outweighed by the cost of having the contingency there and maintaining it for a judged rare event. That's when you question whether MBAs train humans or not.

Just push past them, what are they gonna do? Arrest you?

The story went that the medical services basically yelled at the agents and asked them (paraphrased) whether they were willing to have blood on their hands for the pax's life who was hanging in the balance at the time.

Border agents are known for throwing their weight around and while they may not have direct powers equivalent to that of police nor have they cost lives before, it still takes a brave set of medicos to stand up and reason with them.