Airline's proud image hits turbulence

That soaring image is not one that sits easily with the Qantas A380 that landed at Changi Airport yesterday, six fire engines swarming around it, smoke billowing as passengers tweeted pictures of a clearly damaged wing with blackened edges. The once mighty Qantas brand has taken a significant battering by incidents like this in recent years, according to marketing expert Barry Urquhart.

"Where is Tom Cruise when you need him?" Mr Urquhart says, referring to the 1988 film Rain Man, in which the Qantas name was made famous in an exchange between Charlie Babbit (Cruise) and his autistic older brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), who fears flying. "All airlines have crashed at one time or another," Babbit tells his nervous brother. "Qantas never crashed," retorted Raymond.

The movie is old and the airline has since had some close shaves, but Raymond is still right, there has not been loss of life or aircraft.

Nonetheless, Mr Urquhart said a series of flight mishaps had helped compromise Qantas's reputation. "Once upon a time Qantas was the full service, nationalistic Australian pride brand of aircraft. It was always premium, an airline that has always had its heart worn on its shoulder about it's safety record," he said.

Problems escalated for the airline in 2008 when a gaping hole was torn in the side of a 747 above Manila, forcing an emergency landing. A computer malfunction also caused an A330 to nosedive twice over Western Australia. An independent poll by UMR Research showed only 66 per cent of Australians thought it safe to fly with Qantas, once branded the safest carrier in the world.

UMR managing director John Utting said the litany of technical problems came as a shock to many Australians. "The union campaign [over offshore maintenance] really scored. People felt an act of betrayal from what they perceived as a national icon, a public service almost. A real sense of betrayal drove these things."

But the airline did little to change its branding. It kept its advertising accounts with the same agencies who yesterday refused to comment on safety perceptions.

The airline instead sat it out to effect. In the latest perception poll, published last month, the number of people who viewed Qantas as safe had climbed back to 83 per cent.

Mr Utting said he expected Qantas's image would be harmed by yesterday's engine explosion. The terms A380 and Airbus were popular topics on Twitter all afternoon.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said: "I think that people will recognise that Qantas takes safety so seriously that it will put safety before any commercial requirements of the airline. I think that enhances our reputation."

Mr Utting said the blast, overall, would not hurt Qantas's brand. "Over time opinion trends to the norm."

But Mr Urquhart said people were willing to pay a premium for "peace of mind flying". "Repeated maintenance and performance issues compromise those ideals and the Qantas brand is adversely affected . . ."

10 YEARS OF MISHAPS - A BRIEF HISTORY

2010

Mar 31 A Qantas Airbus A380-800 from Singapore bursts two tyres on landing at Sydney Airport with fl ames shooting out. Aug 30 A ruptured turbine casing on a flight from San Francisco causes a mid-air explosion and forces an emergency landing.

2009

Jun 22 Passengers are hurled around the cabin when a Qantas A330-300 strikes severe turbulence over Borneo and the plane lifts and drops about 250 metres.

2008

Jan 7 QF2 with 344 passengers loses main electrical power approaching Bangkok and lands on battery back-up.

Jan 13 A Boeing 747 makes an emergency landing in Hawaii after an oxygen leak.

Mar 25 QF12 from Los Angeles to Sydney blows three tyres and aborts take-off.

Mar 29 QF580, fl ying from Perth to Sydney with 420 passengers makes an emergency landing when an external window in business class popped.

May 13 Two tyres on a Qantas jet explode during take-off from Sydney Airport.

July 25 QF30 with 346 passengers flying to Manila is forced to make an emergency landing after an explosion blasts a hole in the fuselage (left).

Jul 28 A Melbourne-bound plane returns to Adelaide because doors covering the nose-wheel bay do not close properly after take-off.

Oct 7 QF72 from Singapore to Perth makes an emergency landing on an RAAF airstrip after a sudden drop in altitude. Some passengers are badly injured (above).

2007

February 3 A Los Angeles-bound airliner with flames jetting out of one engine is forced to return to Sydney airport after dumping fuel.

Jul 8 Engine panel falls from QF415 upon landing at Melbourne.

2006

Mar 8 Flight QF5, with 408 passengers travelling from Singapore to Frankfurt, is damaged by a blown tyre shortly after take-off.

Oct 11 Qantas fl ight from Darwin to Brisbane flies with a burning cloth in the engine.

2000

Apr 22 Undercarriage of 747 collapses while preparing for take-off from Rome (above). May 7 The same 747 from the Bangkok accident returns twice to Hong Kong with generator fault.

1999

Sep 23 747-400 overshoots runway in Bangkok while landing in heavy rain (above). Nov 2 Pilots don oxygen masks after fumes enter cockpit of 767 Sydney to Melbourne flight.

Dec 26 747-200 loses an engine piece while flying from Brisbane to Cairns.

WHAT WENT WRONG?

9.56am local time Qantas flight QF32, an A380

airbus with four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, takes off 26 minutes late from Singapores Changi airport bound for Sydney with 433 passengers and 26 crew.

10.02am A loud explosion at 6500ft. Passengers and witnesses on the ground see smoke and flames, and metal fragments rain down on the island of Batam, about

20 kilometres south of Singapore. In the cockpit, multiple error messages warn of a major engine problem and the pilot shuts down the number two engine on the left wing.

Pilot issues a Pan  alert one step short of a Mayday telling other aircraft in the area and authorities on the ground that it has struck trouble and seeks priority clearance for return to Singapore. Witnesses on the ground see the planes flight as unstable. Between 10.02 and 11.45am The plane turns back and for safety reasons dumps fuel, which vaporises in the atmosphere. Pilots perform extensive system

checks while awaiting clearance to land at Singapore. 11.46am Smoking plane lands on the tarmac with the cowling of one engine ripped away and the top of a wing damaged and is swarmed by fire trucks. 1.40pm All passengers have disembarked.