Garuda's collision with containers in Singapore - Sometimes you just can't win!

PK-GFI and the container after the collision at SIN

Last week, Garuda Indonesia's 737-800 PK-GFI suffered a mishap when a baggage container belonging to Singapore Airlines collided with the parked aircraft. The aircraft was on a ground turnaround and parked at the gate awaiting the next flight scheduled for 0900 local time as GA841 to Denpasar, Bali. The aircraft was immediately grounded, causing 50 passengers having to be flown to Bali with other flights.

The offending container and trolley

Puncture just above the static port

The aircraft skin was punctured just aft of door L1, and very nearly hit a static port just below the puncture (which would have caused a lot more in repair bills).

A very expensive 7 inches?

To illustrate the depth of the puncture, the photo on the left was also circulating around the internet. The depth of the puncture is estimated at 7 inches, and quite likely that the pressure hull has been compromised.

News on the incident quickly disappeared from the front of various news sites (including aviation sites), but the aircraft is still undergoing repairs in Singapore.




This evening (21 April 2012), the aircraft was seen at the remote apron just off Terminal 1 in Singapore, with its forward fuselage coved by a white "tent", presumably still having repairs on it. A photo was tweeted by TCG_Aviation, who was on a flight inbound from Kuala Lumpur who tweeted:

@TCG_Aviation: What is Garuda's 737 white cover doing over forward fuselage at SIN Airport? #airchat http://pic.twitter.com/8qijm5HT

Photo:

Photo by: TCG_Aviation

We can see that the aircraft is covered by some form of tent, obviously to hide the repair work that is going on behind the covers. PK-GFI (msn 36805) is leased from GECAS and was first flown on 7 October 2010 and delivered to Garuda 2 weeks later. 

What I find interesting about this incident is the statement by Garuda Indonesia's VP Corporate Quality, Safety & Environment Management, Capt. Novianto Herupratomo, who in a recent seminar in Jakarta stated that despite improving safety over the past decade, two of the airline's most serious safety issues that remain in 2011 were Near Collisions (TCAS RAs) and Ramp/Ground Incidents.

Unfortunately, those two factors are not 100% within the airline's control as this incident shows. 

External threats like Near-Collisions and
Ramp/Ground incidents continue
to challenge Garuda

The safety figures continue to improve
despite continue external safety threat factors

No matter how hard you try, sometimes, you just can't win when bad luck comes along. However, I cannot help but remember that this is not the first time a ground incident has happened for Garuda in Singapore, and I dare say that Singapore seems to be the airport outside Indonesia that has had the most ground mishaps for Garuda. 

But I despite all this, I can't help but wonder, who's going to pay the bill this time?

A fresh way to Scoot around? Yellow 777 or Yellow Scoopy?

After looking at several online stuff on Scoot, the medium-long haul LCC arm of SQ, why do I feel that the whole concept is kinda stale, unexciting, and been done before?

The stuff that got me wondering immediately was:

Nothing fresh here is there...

Really... Come on! If I want to scoot around, I'll go on a scooter... a Yellow Scoopy would do me just fine! (or perhaps a pink one just for fun!) And it looks a helluvalot FRESHER!

Now his is for Scooting around! 

The Yellow Scoopy!

Maybe it’s the stiffness of SQ that made them think, “Oh Wow! This Scoot idea is so radical and cool!?!?!?”

Really, you cannot be serious?

“Not your everyday airline?”, seen that one before, and more than once. Whenever some airline, chants that, it’s usually an LCC. Ryanair has that image with O’Leary’s crazy cheapskate PR stunts (but yes, it works).

EasyJet was perhaps the biggest user of the “different attitude” and “not your everyday airline” concept. In it’s Stelios days, EasyJet used such “new attitude” and out of the box mentality to run its flash mobs around in orange boiler suits at competitor’s inaugurals, or make bets on how much a competitor will lose money.

So, that worked, why not Scoot? Hey! Who said Scoot won’t work or will fail? I didn’t. I just found their concept as stale, and nothing new.

Everything it has said, sounds like copying Air Asia. Even Scoot’s half-sister Tiger has come up with better “tit-for-tat” one liner fights with Air Asia.

The last time some “try to be too radical” airline started up, it was some Dutch LCC based in Maastricht flying out of Niederrhein/Weeze (Germany), which encouraged their crew to be “radicaly different” (yes, FA candidates were told to paint their hair green or some un-invented colour!). That airline didn’t last long! These days, people barely remember V Bird airlines!

So, Tony Fernandez need to change his line from, “imitation is the greatest form of recognition” to “trying to hard to imitate makes you look stupid!” I wonder whether he agrees with me...

Note: No, I'm not being paid by Honda to write this blog! Honest!

Lufthansa to serve FRA-SIN on the A380... what about Jakarta?

On 20th May, Lufthansa announced that Frankfurt-Singapore will be served by the A380 from 30th October onwards. This means that LH778/779 will no longer fly to Jakarta.

If you think this is the end of Lufthansa in Indonesia, well, don't worry... LH790/791 will serve Jakarta-Singapore-Munich instead! So from 30th of October, we'll stop seeing the Lufthansa 744s and will begin to see Lufthansa A340-300s.

It's good to see this European carrier continue to see Jakarta as a destination worth serving with their own metal!

From:

Lufthansa Press Release

20.05.11: Lufthansa’s third A380 destination in Asia – Flights to Jakarta from Munich from start of winter timetable

From 30 October, when the winter timetable goes into effect, Lufthansa will operate a daily A380 service on its Frankfurt-Singapore route. From that date, one of the eight A380s in the Lufthansa fleet will take off from Frankfurt at 22.05 hrs under flight number LH 778 bound for Singapore. On 30 October, Lufthansa will also transfer its service to Jakarta via Singapore from Frankfurt to Munich. The route will be operated with an Airbus A340-300. Passengers arriving in Singapore on the A380 flight from Frankfurt will have plenty of time to transfer to the onward flight to Indonesia.

The A380 can accommodate 526 passengers in comfort – eight in First Class, 98 in Business Class and 420 in Economy class. Meanwhile, Lufthansa’s flagship has scored top marks in terms of technology, ecological efficiency and sustainability. With a fuel burn of only 3.4 litres per 100 passenger-kilometres, it is about 30 per cent quieter than previous wide-bodied jets.

Frankfurt – Singapore (from 30 October 2011) A380 schedule (all times are local times)

• LH 778 Frankfurt 22:05 hrs – Singapore 16:55 hrs (following day)
• LH 779 Singapore 23:55 hrs – Frankfurt 05:55 hrs

Munich – Singapore – Jakarta (from 30 October 2011) A340-300 schedule (all times are local times)

• LH 790 Munich 21:30 hrs – Singapore 16:50 hrs (following day)
• LH 790 Singapore 18.00 hrs – Jakarta 18:50 hrs
• LH 791 Jakarta 20:05 hrs – Singapore 22:45 hrs
• LH 791 Singapore 23:59 hrs – Munich 06:10 hrs