According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the 284 passengers on board Quantas Flight 12--a Boeing 747-400 flying from Los Angeles to Sydney--couldn't believe their eyes when they looked through their windows to see another Boeing from Air New Zealand flying just a few thousand feet from their aircraft. The explanation, as the commander announced, was simple: He was "flying blind" after their aircraft's weather radar broke three hours after take off. Fortunately, as Qantas explained, the Air New Zealand flight was able to relay the data their 747 needed all the way to the other side of the Pacific:

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Early last week a Qantas Airlines Airbus A330 surprised (and injured) its passengers with an inexplicable 300ft climb, followed by an even larger drop. Initial reports seemed to place blame on interference from personal electronics — something that Qantas had claimed before. After the news made the rounds the situation became muddied, with Qantas claiming that the initial news reporting misrepresented their claims and reporters backing away from the story. In any case, rest easy, Australian in-flight gadgeteers — it wasn't your fault.

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Earlier this week, a Qantas A330 inexplicably climbing 300 feet then nose-diving back down. In the cabin, 71 people were injured. Interestingly, the ATSB is now looking at in-cabin interference from personal electronics as a possible cause of the "irregularity with the aircraft's elevator control system." Wait, what? Really?

AU: I feel the need to clarify this: the original article on this stated that investigators were looking at "onboard computers" being the cause of the sudden dive. An enterprising (and unnamed) journo at AAP decided that "onboard computers" must mean "passenger laptops" and hence the rumour was born. While the investigators havent ruled out passenger laptops as a possible cause, they also haven't ruled out the possibility that the co-pilot rendered the entire cockpit unconscious with a stench-laden, in-flight meal-fuelled fart (okay, they may have ruled that out). My point is that this is a media beatup fuelled by some shoddy journalism. You may continue flying with your gadgets without fear of dying.

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Someone at Qantas loves the iPhone. Not long after they announced that they had an iPhone friendly website available, they're now unveiling plans to let travellers check in without paper, instead using their iPhone's screen as their documentation.

From the sounds of the announcement, it will be available for a number of mobile devices and PCs - not just iPhones. They're also planning on allowing online check-ins for international travellers (currently only domestic travellers can check-in online).

The process will involve having a 2D barcode sent to your phone after you check in online, which is aimed at speeding up the check-in process.

[Qantas via APCMag]

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A few years agio at CeBit in Sydney, you could gain entry be scanning a barcode that you'd received via MMS on your phone. It was awesome. Then it disappeared, never to be heard of (by me) again. But now, according to Danny Gorog over at APC, the next generation of that tech is on its way to iPhone users around the country, with Qantas developing ways for you to check in to your flight using your iPhone.

It's still a little while away yet, so in the meantime you'll have to settle for just being able to browse the Qantas website in a format especially designed for your iPhone. ANZ and NineMSN are also jumping on the iPhone-friendly website bandwagon, although both only have limited functionality as well at the moment.

The real question is though - is this just a few companies trying to leech some of the iPhone's neverending hype machine, or are they trying to create a truly convenient service using the iPhone's impressive feature set? Only time will tell...

[Qantas for iPhone via APC Mag]

At the end of last week, Qantas revealed that it would be offering in-flight Net access on domestic flights by the end of the year. The service will appear first on domestic B767-300 and A330-200 aircraft.

It also revealed the technology it would be using for its service. You'd think Wi-Fi would be the sensible choice, right? Apparently, you'd be wrong. It's using a mobile phone base station designed by AeroMobile to provide GPRS connectivity to mobile phones. The base station will also provide text messaging support, but no voice call support (the technology is capable of voice, but Qantas isn't turning it on).

To access the Net while you're on-board, you'll need a mobile phone with international roaming and GPRS support. Of course, if you want to access the Net from a PC, you'll also need a PC connection kit for your phone.

We have no idea of the pricing as yet, but given it's based on an international roaming profile, we expect it to be very, very expensive. We'll keep you posted as more details come to light. [apcmag.com]

Just when most other airlines and airplane manufacturers are removing in-flight internet access, Qantas goes the exact opposite direction (into our hearts) and adds internet access. The A380 and 747-400 planes that will make up their web-enabled fleet will have both Wi-Fi and a charging slot to plug your laptop into. Not much else here in the way of pricing or availability, but expect a lofty surcharge if you want to get a seat with both outlets, an Ethernet port, USB ports, and a 17-inch built-in LCD. Service starts in February 2008, but you'll be getting sub-dialup speeds as everyone clown-cars into a 432kbps connection. [APC Mag]