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‘This is an emergency,’ as the plane rapidly dropped 8000 metres.22 Qantas later said the depressurisation had been caused by an air-conditioning fault. It came a day before a Sydney-bound 747 was forced to turn back to Bangkok because of a suspected engine fuel leak and a week after a trans-Pacific flight had to be diverted to Fiji because of another engine problem. ‘It’s certainly very frustrating because passengers are being affected,’ said Qantas spokesman Tom Woodward after the rapid descent. ‘We spend $1.4 billion in maintenance a year, we don’t see there are systematic maintenance issues.’23

In actual fact, the problems with Qantas remain the same. Poor management decisions taken years ago on fleet purchases have resulted in an ageing fleet; the airline has a highly skilled but expensive, unionised workforce; it is suffering increased competition, leading to a smaller market share and reduced margins; shareholders are unhappy at a falling share price; and it’s drawn bad press due to a string of unfortunate incidents.

So how does Alan Joyce sleep at night? Perhaps he should turn to some good old-fashioned bedside reading. One suggestion would be Wings to the World by Qantas founder Hudson Fysh. It contains sound advice – philosophies that saw Fysh through dark days at the helm of Qantas, which are equally applicable today, particularly in the wake of the A380 incident. Fysh wrote that good, well-paid pilots are the mainstay of the airline and that its first priority – Fysh uses that old fashioned word ‘duty’ – should always be to the public and the passengers, not to the shareholders.

Qantas founder Lieutenant W. Hudson Fysh of 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, standing in front of his Nieuport Scout aircraft, in France, c. 1918. (Australian War Memorial, negative number P00342.001)

The first Qantas office, Duck Street, Longreach, Queensland, 1921. (National Archives of Australia; B941/2)

Part of the Qantas de Havilland fleet in front of the airline’s Brisbane hangar, 1934. The Atalanta on the far right was destroyed in an accident near Winton, killing the pilot and two passengers. (Macarthur Job)

A Qantas DH86 refuelling at Cloncurry. The plane was plagued with problems due to the hurried design process, which Qantas insisted on in order to land a vital and lucrative airmail contract. (Macarthur Job)

Wreckage of the DH86 that crashed outside Longreach on its delivery flight from England, killing all four on board. (Macarthur Job)

The Coolangatta, one of the Qantas Empire flying boats that ushered in a new era of luxury flight on the Kangaroo Route between Australia and England. (Lionel Perry/Gold Coast City Council Local Studies Library)

The smoking salon on an Empire flying boat. After a visit passengers could adjourn to the promenade deck for quoits. (Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis)

In May 1954, the first Qantas Super Constellation flew from Sydney to San Francisco. (Josef Lebovic Gallery)

Wreckage of the Lockheed Super Constellation VH-EAC, which suffered an engine failure on take-off from Mauritius in 1960. The Department of Civil Aviation’s Director of Air Safety Investigation said, ‘This was a “cheap” accident for Qantas … the important thing is to ensure the company acknowledges the weaknesses involved in bringing it about and is made to see it was completely avoidable.’ (Macarthur Job)

Peter Macari, a.k.a. Mr Brown, who extorted $500,000 from Qantas by claiming he had placed a bomb on a Hong Kong-bound jet in 1971. The claim was a hoax and he was caught after going on a spending spree with the money. (Fairfax Photos)

QF1 at Bangkok Airport in 1999 after hydroplaning along the wet runway and ending up nose down on the next-door golf course. Cost-cutting measures by management were blamed for the crash. The jet hull was eventually repaired and put back into service. It is claimed aircrew have since nicknamed it the golf buggy. (Sukree Suplang/Reuters/Picture Media)

New broom … James Strong, who swept out many of the Qantas old guard, pictured