Further fears over Qantas jets
11 January 2008There has been speculation that more Qantas planes could suffer from the fault that caused a mid-air problem this week.
In an incident that highlighted the importance of travel insurance, a Qantas flight experienced a power failure and was forced to run on battery power before it could land at Bangkok airport.
There are now fears that the fault that caused the power outage could occur on other Boeing 747s operated by the airline.
According to Australia's News.com, Qantas refused to comment on how many of its jumbo jets had to undergo emergency repairs following the incident near Bangkok.
The airline underlined its engineering standards, with general manager John Borghetti saying: "Regardless of some of the more colourful claims being made about Qantas's engineering standards, the truth is that Qantas has one of the world's leading engineering operations."
Aviation experts reportedly said that battery power is only guaranteed for 30 minutes and suggested that the plane could have crashed if it was further away from an airport.
Commenting on the incident, Australian and International Pilots Association manager Peter Somerville said: "Clearly it's worrying that it occurred. In other circumstances, it could have been catastrophic."