Welcome home, Nancy-Bird

Yet when the A380’s ‘iceberg’ loomed ahead its crew were able to nurse the crip-pled machine home amid a maze of systems failures and warning flags. Unfortunately, Titanic did not possess the same level of automation, redundancies and support as it floundered on the Atlantic that icy night in 1912, its fate now cemented in history.

The sinking of Titanic often is referred to as a prime example of nature reminding man of his arrogance and faith in technolo-gy. Personally, I belive that is all too clichéd. Since we emerged from the caves, carved flint and invented the wheel, humankind has strived to venture beyond the horizon by the most impressive means available.

Certainly, the industrial revolution saw an extremely accelerated rate of development but the spirit that drove it was as old as time itself. Only the tooling and resources had changed.

In all fields where man steps beyond the safety of his familiar environment there is potentially risk and danger. The failure to provide adequate emergency equipment aboard Titanic proved a tragic mistake and in the wake of the accident, the rules were changed. Such is the history of all forms of transport where unfortunately, lessons often are learned from unspeakable losses. Aviation is no different and the previous century of flight is filled with accidents that have led to change – in the wake of Qantas QF32’s mid-air emergency over Singapore there was no loss of life – and a good many lessons are often learned.

For aviators, QF32 offered a number of reminders that, regardless of the scale of the aircraft, the main task at hand is to fly the aeroplane. When the engine failed catastrophically and systems dropped off-line, less and less of the remarkable technology was available to the crew. In fact, some fairly core flight systems also had been compromised.

But the crew called upon their experience to prioritise and assess the issues as they arose, though throughout I would suspect that controlling the aircraft, staying safely clear of terrain and monitoring their fuel stocks would have been at the forefront. And this applies whether you are at the helm of an Airbus, a Boeing or a Beechcraft.

Even when the aircraft found the relative safety of the ground, one engine could not be shut down and the safety implications for an evacuation in this situation are obvious.

Consequently, flight and cabin crew managed this emergency right up until the last passenger was safe and the aircraft secure. As an old aviator once told me: “The flight isn’t over until the aeroplane is tied down or in the hangar. ” Inevitably the ‘coffee room quarterbacks’ emerged from the shadows, dissected the crew’s actions from the comfort of their lounge chairs and espoused wonderful solu-tions with the heroism bred of hindsight.

But anyone who has been under the very real pressure of a critical emergency will attest that when the pulse rate soars even the best simulator replication cannot quite cap-ture the same atmosphere and level of stress.

And armchair critics aside, no one is more self-critical and self-analytical than a pilot – undoubtedly, the QF32 crew wrestled long and deeply with aspects of the emergency after the event.

The bottom line is that they returned the aircraft relatively intact, with their passen-gers safely on board – and all importantly, they were there, not the critics.

A Homecoming

As the crew readied themselves and VH-OQA awaited departure from Singa-pore to rejoin the Qantas fleet, the drama of QF32 could neither be forgotten nor overlooked. But as in any field of human endeavour, we must always positively learn from the past and not negatively dwell on it.

Man will continue to push new fron-tiers, be they into space or along well-worn routes but in different craft – it is in our nature. Before each step forward there will be a glance behind to check that some tragic aspect of history is not about to be repeated. But once that has been addressed progress will continue.

This A380 proudly bears the name of Nancy-Bird Walton, a pioneering aviatrix who forged her own unique path in avia-tion history. I had the pleasure of meeting Nancy several times and can’t help but think that she cast an approving eye down from the heavens as her namesake made its way home.

As the giant Airbus approached its de-scent point, I drove along the perimeter of Sydney Airport to find the airfield shroud-ed in fog. Undoubtedly, Nancy-Bird’s crew had been watching with interest through-out the night as each weather forecast was uplinked to the A380. Waiting for a split in the dry and wet bulb temperatures or an increase in wind strength, something to indicate that the fog was about to clear – and it did.

After 18 months away from home, VH-OQA made an uneventful arrival at Sydney Airport with its selected contingent of passengers. Touching down on Runway 16R and given the traditional ‘welcome home dousing’ by the fire services, it was not only the end of an eight-hour flight but also a 16-month journey.

So ended another chapter in the Qantas story, the development of the Airbus A380 and its Rolls-Royce engines. The success-ful landing of the A380 after its midair emergency has allowed analysis of all that transpired, from engines and systems to procedures and the human factor.

As the development of aviation has shown over the past century, sound exami-nation of any safety-related event can reap tremendous benefits for future air travellers. Such is the case with the lessons learned from QF32.

As for Nancy-Bird Walton, she didn’t merely rest on her laurels. As good as new, and quite possibly even better, she took to the skies once more and did what she does best – carried her precious passengers around the globe.

We will never forget the lessons from Titanic and the tragedy and suffering as it plunged to the depths of the Atlantic. Nor will we mark time. Humanity will continue to challenge itself and pay due respect to the domains of land, sea and air that it seeks to navigate.

However, man will never conquer these natural realms and must be satisfied to achieve safe passage through them. This can only be achieved by continuing to go forward while paying heed to the voices of those who have gone before. This simple philosophy has always existed at the heart of air safety and hopefully, always will.

Welcome home and safe travels Nancy-Bird.