Qantas bogged down by more problems

A Qantas jet that got bogged at Sydney airport is the latest in a series of mishaps
to dog the Australian airline.
Maintenance workers took a shortcut while towing an aircraft along a taxiway on
Friday, which landed it in trouble, according to a number of witnesses' accounts on
the professional pilot rumour network website www.pprune.org
The Airbus A330, laden with fuel but not carrying passengers, was due to fly to
Tokyo, but because of the mishap the flight was cancelled.
Qantas confirmed the incident saying a towbar holding the aircraft to the truck had
failed and two of the jet's wheels went onto the grass beside the taxiway.
"Obviously it is a fairly unusual incident," a Qantas spokesman told AAP.
"It was all resolved relatively quickly - there were no passengers on it, there was
no inconvenience to any passengers."
After being pulled out the plane returned to operations within 12 hours, he said.
It is understood a safety advisory note, called a NOTAM (notice to airmen) - which
alerts pilots to changes at airports and in airspace - was issued about some changes
to the taxiway.
Emergency vehicles were seen surrounding the jet.
One observer told the pprune website: "(It) looked hilarious, all the orange safety
car lights going off around it."
It has been a tough few months for the flying kangaroo, including a mid-air incident
over Western Australia, an exploding oxygen tank blowing a hole in the fuselage on
an international flight, security screening breaches and a number of maintenance
incidents.