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Qantas safety probe - Squad targets airline after third incident
Transcript of Brisbane Courier-Mail article
Peter Morley and Peter Mitchell , 4 August 2008
Australia's aviation watchdog has formed a special team to investigate Qantas amid growing public concern the airline's safety standards may have slipped.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority insisted the carrier was safe despite the latest scare, in which the captain of a Qantas 767 flight made an emergency landing at Sydney Airport on Saturday after discovering a hydraulic fluid leak.
It was the third Qantas plane in just over a week to make an emergency landing because of a mid-air fault.
On July 25 a Qantas plane made an emergency landing in Manila after a mid-air explosion tore a hole in its fuselage, while on Tuesday a domestic flight was forced to return to Adelaide after a wheel bay door failed to close.
CASA said yesterday it had no evidence to suggest safety standards had fallen but decided to set up a special investigation team in the next fortnight to examine in greater depth issues such as maintenance, safety systems and the way in which Qantas had handled the recent incidents.
"I wouldn't say we're concerned about Qantas' safety at all but we've got to be cognisant. If things happen we need to be flexible and proactive and response to those (concerns) and that's what we're doing," spokesman Peter Gibson said.
Qantas cabin crew have ruled out industrial action despite the run of safety scares.
The Flight Attendants Association said the incident was disturbing and the cabin crew had asked the company for a briefing but its international division secretary Michael Mijatov said it was just a routine request.
"Qantas is a safe airline ... (but) we're flight attendants. We have to fly in the aircraft. It's just a natural request," Mr Mijatov said.
Meanwhile a Brisbane aviation law specialist, Peter Carter, said new laws to boost the amount of compensation victims or relatives of aviation accidents could claim needed to be pushed through Parliament.
"The legislation makes the airline absolutely liable for death or injuries up to an amount to be set by regulation, which I expect to be $500,000, but will also be liable for any proven passenger losses above that sum, unless the airline proves the accident was not its fault," Mr Carter said.
"Failure to have the Bill passed into law means that injury and death compensation limits last reviewed in 1996 still apply."
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