Technical get out clause being used

Vauban

It's a reference to an example given in Wallentin:

"in the situation where it was revealed by the manufacturer of the aircraft comprising the fleet of the air carrier concerned, or by a competent authority, that those aircraft, although already in service, are affected by a hidden manufacturing defect which impinges on flight safety."

ie Like the reported problems with the Dreamliner, it's a techniical fault which affects not just one aircraft but the whole fleet and requires the equivalent of a "product recall".

But you are right to flag this - I remember one person lost their case because the DJ interpreted this as a technical problem that had been hidden (ie not picked up in maintenance).

Prothet_of_Doom

But all Electronics have an inherent random failure rate. Individually low rates of failure, but in a complex system like an aircraft, quite unexceptional for something (one of many, randomly) to fail

There is so much that could fail, that Airlines, have back up plans and procedures in place to put people up overnight, to get parts from over the globe, to fix it asap.

Why don't they have all the parts on every location? Too many parts with low failure rates, so it would cost too much to hold all parts in every location. They calculate the cost of holding the stock and compare it to the likely failure rate and the cost if they don't hold the stock, and choose to take a risk of holding in one regional centre.

What is not surprising or exceptional is that something broke. It's just they have no way of predicting waht will break. But on the law of probability, eventually something would break.

Tupence

Does anybody know by chance if there is a website anywhere that can be used to find out what actually caused delays in flights. Rather than relying on the airlines to pass on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but!

111KAB

Tupence wrote: »

Does anybody know by chance if there is a website anywhere that can be used to find out what actually caused delays in flights. Rather than relying on the airlines to pass on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but!

Depends upon the airline and who you know!!

batman44

Tupence wrote: »

Does anybody know by chance if there is a website anywhere that can be used to find out what actually caused delays in flights. Rather than relying on the airlines to pass on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but!

You could try Aviation herald.com but only captures incidents.

Tupence

As suggested by previous posts on this site, I sent another letter to TC to ask for further clarification on the technical issues that affected our flight. I am pleased to say that I had a letter back this morning quote:-
I write further to your most recent correspondence. Initially, I would like to apologise for the delay in a further response being forthcoming, and I regret any further disappointment this caused. After reviewing the details that caused your flight with Thomas Cook Airlines to be delay, I do feel that a payment in

line with our obligation under Regulations 261/2004 should be made. I have therefore arranged for a discount voucher to the value of £1030.00, which represents £515.00 per person, to be sent to you shortly. The voucher can be redeemed against a future reservation with Thomas Cook and the full Terms and
Conditions can be found on the reverse. In closing, I would like to thank you for your patience while your case was reviewed, and I do hope that we will be able to welcome you on a future holiday in the near future.

Is this normal procedure for the company to offer a discount voucher, or can one demand money as an alternative, now that they have addmitted it was there fault???

Tupence

I wish to thank everyone on this website and forum for all the help and support they have provided. As previously stated TC had offered us vouchers as payment for our claim, but after sending another letter asking for a cheque or bank transfer instead, I am pleased to say that the claim has been made by bank transfer. I just goes to show that with a little bit of perciverance and help from others it can be done. As an added bonus the amount paid was double what I had originally claimed. In the original claim I erred on the side of not being too greedy, but it seems that when TC studied the claim it came out at much more. Thank you again to everyone and if anyone else new is looking to claim, please take heed of the above post :T