INCIDENTALLY: Messy Business
We should like to take this opportunity to congratulate Messrs Eddington and Cahn of British Airways on the way they helped deal with a problem, caused by a single interloper, at the CBI Future Heathrow briefing last Monday. Let”s just say they cleared up a bit of a mess from a sponge cake in double quick time. A credit to the airline.
Following on our suggestion of Loch Ness International Airport for Inverness, we have had some other suggestions the best of which we think is, ”Newquay ” Surfers Paradise International”, for RAF St Mawgan in Cornwall.
And with regard to another "Incidentally" column and unusual vibrations, it seems that problems of that ilk are not new. Britannia Airways, now Thomsonfly, had a similar but different problem when they first introduced the Boeing 767 in 1984. Regularly on the descent, cabin crew reported to the flight deck of unusual and loud rattling noises towards the rear of the aircraft. These were noted but engineers were unable to replicate, or find the problem, which continued. Boeing were called in and again, on test flights were unable to replicate it. However, eventually the problem was solved. At the end of flights the cabin crew were in the habit of disposing of the remaining ice cubes from the galleys, down the toilets. Unlike Britannia's previous aircraft where lavatories were of the old "Elsan" type, the B767 was equipped with vacuum flush toilets, fitted with pipes to a container at the rear of the belly hold. As these ice cubes were sucked along these points they rattled loudly. Problem solved ” but for some weeks there were some very worried engineers at Luton and Seattle!