@pakman said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@crucial said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@snowy said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@bones There will have been a shit load more to that. Annoying for you but you got there alive didn't you. There is reason air travel is safe.
Yep, it is as annoying as fuck but aircraft repairs are way more complicated than chucking on a replacement part and crossing your fingers.
Any fault has to be logged with full tracing of the faulty part in case it is potentially from a faulty batch. Any replacement must also have that same traceability and be checked for potential compatibility issues with other parts on that plane. The level of checking and caution is very high.
Admittedly, I believe that like many airlines AirNZ have pulled back on their engineering spend to find a better cost balance although compared to some other large airlines they are still very good.
Talk to an airline engineer about what airlines they won't fly on and you will get some surprises.
Can't remember who told me this, about 20 years ago, but some engineering fellow said to stick to airlines with 'British' trained engineers. Back then I recall that as including BA, Virgin, ANZ, Qantas, Cathay, Singapore and SAA.
Avoid American if possible. Three grades of fault, 1,2 & 3. Grade 1 immediate fix, 2 something like that week. Grade 3 was not vital but needed to be done at some point. Trouble was to save on costs American Airlines only did 3s every six months, as against promptly by 'Brits'. Cumulative impact of many 3s can become as risky as a 2, and in exceptional circumstances a 1.
May be out of date by now.
I occasionally have this discussion with an ex AirNZ engineer and this is what I picked up
BA are awful now, massive interference in engineering by the accountants. Cathy and Singapore have always been very good and maintained high standards
The UK/US thing is a bit true but doesn't always hold water. One of the key things is the investment in parts on hand. As I described earlier every nut and bolt on a commercial aircraft is computer logged with identifiers and makes it possible to trace faults, compatibility and batch issues If you need to order a part (as opposed to having it in store) this safety aspect can mean that it takes a little longer.
In passenger impact this can mean that an expected small repair becomes a bigger issue when the part you expect to use is not usable on that particular aircraft. So you get those situations where they sit you on the tarmac saying short delay, which then becomes a long delay.
