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Plane cockpit locks 'can be opened by Paddle Pop stick'; Qantas is putting passenger and pilot safety at risk
Topic Started: 27 Oct 2010, 11:24 PM (1,561 Views)
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http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/plane-cockpit-locks-can-be-opened-by-paddle-pop-stick-20101027-172ve.html

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Plane cockpit locks 'can be opened by Paddle Pop stick'
October 27, 2010 - 10:46AM

Qantas is putting passenger and pilot safety at risk with cockpit locks that can be opened with an ice-cream stick or a rolled-up boarding pass, an engineers' group says.

Sunstate Airlines, a subsidiary of Qantas, is operating more than 20 aircraft with the unsecure locks, the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association says.

But Qantas group spokesman David Epstein said the claims were not about safety and the association had a much broader agenda.
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The ALAEA's federal secretary, Stephen Purvinas, said the aircraft are flying in breach of the transport regulations because the locks are easily opened with a "Paddle Pop stick" and not fully bulletproof.

"Management are aware of the problem, have provided no solution and the aircraft continue to fly in breach of the Department of Transport regulations," Mr Purvinas said in a statement.

"QantasLink opted for cheaper versions of doors that are required to be bulletproof and, on the larger aircraft they fly, resistant to grenade shrapnel.

"These doors are compromised by locks which are not fully bulletproof."

He said the association was calling on the aircraft to be grounded immediately until the airline is able to comply with the legislation.

Mr Epstein said the complaints are "a well-worn tactic of the ALAEA's federal secretary Steve Purvinas when enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations are not going his way".

"Safety and security are our highest priorities and the cockpit doors on 28 QantasLink turboprop aircraft meet all relevant aviation security regulatory and manufacturer requirements," Mr Epstein said.

"This has been validated after consultation with the Office of Transport Security and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

"Yet Mr Purvinas is still prepared to raise his spurious claims, needlessly alarming the travelling public and damaging Qantas."

Mr Epstein said Qantas and QantasLink continually review security measures.

"There is no need to for any aircraft to be grounded, and the travelling public can fly on QantasLink services with complete confidence," he said.
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Frosty
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Qantas, the flying kangaroo, the world only airline never to have a major crash!!!

(maybe not for much longer..................)
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Which is the world's safest airline?

Joshua Crouthamel

Every other day we seem to hear reports of commercial airline failures — planes diverted to make emergency landings after in-flight dramas, aircraft grounded due to shonky equipment, near collisions and crew strikes over safety standards — and these are just to name a few from this week.

With all the uncertainty in the sky, which is the safest airline to trust with your travel arrangements?

AirSafe.com is an independent fact-gathering website run by a former airline safety analyst in the USA, and it gives consumers an idea of an airline's relative safety by analysing historical performance. But one can't exactly compile a top-ten list of the world's safest airlines — a number of factors come in to play when ranking a carrier's safety ranking.

What makes an airline safe anyway?

This particular safety register calculates an airline's 'fatal events' since 1970, based on the number of passengers who lose their lives relative to the total number of onboard passengers. This estimate is then weighted against the number of flights a particular airline operates — for example, if a carrier has only operated one flight since the 70s, and all aboard met their maker, that company would have a much higher score than an airline operating a hundred flights a day and has lost a handful of passengers over the last four decades.

So who's the safest down under?

Based on fatality rates alone (not including your in-flight bumps, bruises and busted doors), here is a list of popular carriers that fly in and out of Australasia. Remember — the lower an airline's ranking, the safer its track record:

* China Airlines — 7.16
* Air India — 4.89
* Thai Airways — 1.60
* Singapore Airlines — 1.50
* Cathay Pacific — 1.45
* Air New Zealand — 0.74
* United — 0.31
and, still the safest airline with a total of zero fatalities ...
* Qantas — 0.00

So despite the bad press of late, the kangaroo in the sky is your best bet on arriving alive. But according to the Australian and International Pilots Association's recent government address, carriers across the globe are 'forcing airlines to adopt less safe practices' due to financial pressures.

Are we better off grounded?

In short, no. According to Wikipedia, approximately 744 people were killed globally by commercial airline accidents in 2007. That is roughly equivalent to the number of people who died after being struck by lightning the very same year. So your chances of touching down in one piece are incredibly good, considering the fact that over ten million commercial flights took off last year alone. By comparison, roughly 3,000 people are killed globally every DAY in automobile accidents. So bear down, brave it, but be sure to buckle up.

Is airline safety keeping you on the ground? Any in-flight fiasco preventing you from flying a particular airline ever again?

Read more: http://travel.ninemsn.com.au/world/655293/which-is-the-worlds-safest-airline

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stinkbug
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I had a paddle pop on a flight earlier this week. I thought it would be a major security breach, but everyone just sat there licking their poles. It reminded me a little of Moops' social life.
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While it's true that those who win never quit, and those who quit never win, those who never win and never quit are idiots.

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