The Mighty 747 by Jim Eames

Author:Jim Eames [Jim Eames]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2022-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

16

HI HO, HI HO, IT’S INTO THE AIR WE GO

It was early 1988 when Qantas, already short on aircraft capacity for its own operations, started to look around the world for an extra 747 to meet its ongoing commitment to provide an aircraft on lease to Fiji’s national carrier Air Pacific.

Quick research worldwide soon found what might be the best option—a Boeing with the UK registration G-HIHO, which had been operated by the Scottish airline Highland Express and was currently parked in Brussels awaiting the resolution of some outstanding maintenance costs that its owners owed to Sabena, the Belgian airline. Although it was an early -100 series 747, its flight deck and interior layout were close enough to the rest of the -200 aircraft in the Qantas fleet to make it a worthwhile proposition. A plan was put in place to fly it to Singapore, where SingAir Maintenance Services would undertake a complete overhaul before its final delivery to Australia.

At first sight, however, the aircraft’s relatively poor overall condition prompted Cliff Viertel’s delivery team to seek urgent advice from Boeing in Seattle, who immediately advised them not to touch the aircraft until Qantas engineers had gone over it with a fine-tooth comb. After they confirmed it as airworthy, Viertel should skip any test flight but carry out a very thorough pre-flight check, and even then delay departure if bad weather or turbulence was forecast. Once the plane was airborne, they advised, Viertel should limit pressurisation cycles as much as possible.

By late February 1988, Qantas engineers had given the clearance Viertel needed. With his team ready to leave, Viertel made a request for enough fuel to start the engines and carry out a systems check on the aircraft. That appeared to cause an immediate flurry among Sabena’s legal people, who wished the Boeing to remain security for their debts.

Viertel describes what followed as having all the makings of a farce. ‘First, they instructed the Sabena staff to “take the ignition keys” so we couldn’t sneak off to another airport. But as there were no ignition keys, their only alternative was to remove the start switch module from the cockpit.’ And, just for added security, they towed an Airbus A310 across the exit to the parking area, leaving no space for the Boeing to taxi past.

Therefore, Viertel hardly felt sorry for them when that night a North Sea gale ripped along the English Channel and into Brussels airport, dislodging a set of steel steps on wheels, sending them at first directly towards his Boeing, then crashing into the Airbus’s nose, causing substantial structural damage. ‘When we arrived next morning we wondered why so many dark, unfriendly looks came our way as we walked through the hangar,’ Viertel remembers.

Several days later, with the ‘keys’ problem overcome, the 747 was fully loaded with fuel and, with only the crew and the Qantas engineers on board, G-HIHO took to the air. The hope was to make Singapore direct, although, as Viertel would discover, ‘taking to the air’ was not quite an adequate description of the thirteen-hour flight that followed.

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