Airbus screening all calls with Australia, Singapore country code; Qantas gets clever, uses Canadian passenger's cell phone

Blagnac, France--Earlier today, Qantas, the Australian-based airline, grounded all A380 superjumbo-jets in its fleet, which are made by the French company Airbus, after one of the plane's engines burst into flames soon after takeoff and was forced to return and make an emergency landing back in Singapore.

After the incident, Qantas repeatedly attempted to contact Airbus, with no success, regarding the performance and overall safety of all active A380's, including other airlines around the world. The jumbo-jetliner, which features two full-sized racquetball courts on the upper floor, a 100-yard driving range on the bottom level and a small children's amusement park in the middle, experienced long delays during its production when it made its debut nearly two years ago.

"I kept calling and calling and there was no answer in France," said Lyle Murray, the longtime Qantas executive from his office in Sydney just before leaving for Singapore to check on crew and passengers. "It was like they were screening our calls. After we called, I had the Melbourne office call and they couldn't get through either. Then I had the Brisbane and Singapore office call. No answer or straight to voice mail. Something was fishy."

So frustrated was the airline that the pilot of flight QF32, the jetliner forced to land early, made an announcement over the Singapore airport's intercom asking to borrow a cell phone not registered in Australia or Singapore as "apparently Airbus is screening our calls." The veteran pilot had an idea.

"This lovely retired Canadian couple came forward and said that could use their phone but that we had to pay the international charges associated with the call ... and they wanted two free tickets anywhere Qantas flies. It was a little steep but I agreed," said senior Qantas pilot of QF32, Paul Owens. "When I called France with their phone, guess what? I got through right away. Once Airbus knew it was Qantas calling they tried to use the old 'you're breaking up' excuse, but I called their bluff. They quickly put me through to the top."

The French company panicked when the pilot so cleverly got through to its headquarters, but couldn't stall any longer.

"I was under strict orders to let all calls with the +61 and +65 country codes go right to voice mail or just not answer them," said a stale-baguette-waving Laurielle Juneau, head of the Airbus call center in Lyon, which was moved back from India a year and a half ago. "Then I get this call with Canada's country code, so I answered it ... thinking it was a customer with a general question. It was supposed to be Tom Hearn of Windsor, Ontario. Well played Qantas, well played indeed."

It was later reported that Airbus was refusing Qantas calls because there was only one day left of the warranty for all A380 jumbo-jetliners the airline had purchased. Airbus would neither confirm nor deny this report but said "they just needed more time to do some stuff."

As far as the onboard experience during the ordeal in the sky, one passenger praised the pilot's work at keeping the 433 aboard calm and collected.

"The fire was on the left wing and Captain Owens, smart as he is, just kept telling us to look out the right side of the jet," said Gail Thomas, 45, of Adelaide, South Australia, returning home from a business trip. "He kept saying, 'There's nothing to see to the left so just keep looking right and you can just make out the volcano on Java's north coast. I couldn't see any volcano or maybe he was just making it up. I mean, I didn't know until we landed that we lost an engine because I kept looking out the right side. Even the people on the left were looking out the right side. He said we had to return to Singapore because he thought he left the toaster oven on in the Captain's lounge. He's good.

Notes: There were no reported injuries, but many passengers appeared frustrated that there is no 'u' in Qantas. The airline had no comment.