Virgin Blue
Today we flew on Virgin Blue, a Branson domestic airline based in Australia from Sydney to what should have been the Gold Coast. The flight originally scheduled for 12.45 had been rescheduled for 1.45pm. This was annoying but I didn't complain. After take-off the plane started to level off, suddenly the landing gear deployed and the plane began to violently cavitate. After a couple of minutes the gear was retracted and the flight continued. The pilot said that due to a mechanical malfunction the landing gear had to be tested. I'm not a good flier, I'm easily scared, this flight left me petrified. The announcement came 20 minutes later that the flight would have to make an emergency landing at a larger airport. After a extremely rough landing we taxied to a gate and sat while flight attendants debated whether we should be allowed to use cell phones to inform relatives that we weren't dead just postponed. 30 minutes later we were given the message that we would have to disembark, pick up our bags and grab a bus for our original destination. Given the choice, when flying in Australia, don't fly Virgin Blue.
posted by mochi at 6:29 AM
2 Comments:
I flew Virgin Blue a few years back - one of the best flights I have been on - purely becasue the planes were brand new and felt safe!!!
But the thing to think about is that Virgin Blue is a cut-price, no frills airline.... so I guess you sometimes get what you pay for ;-)
I usually choose flights based on the aircraft. Maybe I need to rethink that philosophy. Is it better to fly on a poorly maintained new plane or a well maintained old plane? Maybe I just need to lighten up on flying... We flew Air Pacific and AA back to the Boston and the following week I took United to San Francisco, all very uneventful flights. I just thought the Virgin Blue experience was unusual and poorly handled by the airline. But as you said "you get what you pay for".
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