Post date: Nov 06, 2010 3:54:13 PM
Qantas Ambassador John Travolta joins celebrations of the airline's 90th anniversary, days after two of the company's aircraft had to to make emergency landings.
AUSTRALIA-QANTAS ANNIVERSARY - From near tragedy to celebration, this month has had its ups and downs for Qantas Airlines.
Despite two recent air incidents the company is going ahead with celebrating its 90th anniversary.
Qantas Ambassador John Travolta arrived in Sydney in his Boeing 707 to kick off the festivities.
CEO of the company Alan Joyce greeted the Hollywood star.
A pilot himself, Travolta recalled his childhood memories of the airline.
QANTAS AMBASSADOR, JOHN TRAVOLTA, SAYING:
"Since I was a little boy, five-years-old actually, I had an obsession with airliners and aviation. And Qantas always intrigued me the most because they had the longest over water flights, most romantic flights and as I got older and learned about their tradition of integrity, of technical advantages, of service, of safety, I started to get more intrigued with them."
The ceremony took place next to a recently grounded Airbus A380.
Qantas' A380 fleet was grounded after one of its engines exploded last Thursday during a flight from Singapore to Sydney.
Another Qantas incident involved engine trouble Friday on a Sydney-bound Boeing 747-400 -- both are unrelated.
CEO QANTAS, ALAN JOYCE, SAYING:
"We believe that this is a very different incident that took place on the A380 a couple of days ago. For one, the engine failure was a contained failure, no part of the engine protruded from the engine into the fuselage or to the wing, so it is very different in terms of the risk level."
Joyce also defended criticism from unions that maintenance done offshore contributed to the failures.
The A380's engine problem marked the biggest incident to date for the world's largest passenger plane.
Ian Lee Reuters