Curfew Busters - Qantas, Jetstar

Excepts from http://tinyurl.com/58qafr reveal...FAULTY Qantas and Jetstar planes
and equipment have been responsible for almost half of all curfew breaches at
Sydney Airport over the past 12 months.

Records from the NSW Ministry of Transport list defects that caused significant
delays to passengers and inflicted aircraft noise on residents after 11pm.........


The ministry's logs reveal that in April a Qantas jet was given special
dispensation after it was delayed by a "refuelling truck [that] was unable to
disengage from the aircraft". Another flight broke the curfew after engineers
discovered "metal on the magnetic engine". sic

On March 25, Qantas's "entire operations [in Sydney] were operating from just
two landlines and two mobile phones" after lightning strikes caused a
communications failure. As a result Qantas was unable to arrange accommodation
for 72 stranded passengers and was granted permission to fly after curfew.

Another breach occurred on Boxing Day last year when a Qantas plane broke down
at Perth Airport and could not be towed to a parking bay for maintenance because
all bays were being used by other Qantas planes that had broken down. Records
show Qantas flight 566 was "kept standing on the taxiway until a bay could be
cleared", which took two hours and meant it could not land in Sydney before the
11pm curfew.