Qantas problems continue.

Over the past 6 weeks the national carrier of Australia (Qantas) have had several mechanical problems affecting the fleet.

Just the other day a Qantas Boeing 747-400 en-route from Singapore to London landed in the German city of Frankfurt after its crew shut down engine four because of a vibration. Flight QF31 landed without incident. At the moment Qantas engineers are investigating the cause of the engine problem. Passengers were diverted to other carriers, either flying direct to London or to other European destinations.

On July 25, a faulty oxygen bottle blew a hole in the fuselage of a Qantas Boeing 747-400 flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne. The blast caused the aircraft with 365 people on board, to depressurize and it rapidly descended several thousand feet before making an emergency landing in Manila.

On July 29, a Adelaide- Melbourne flight returned to Adelaide when a wheel bay door failed to close, while a hydraulic fluid leak forced a Boeing 767 to return to Sydney.

On August 4 Hydraulics caused a flight to be delayed almost three hours in Sydney.

On August 7 a noisy air-conditioning fault forced the grounding of a jet that had recently returned from routine maintenance in Malaysia with 95 defects.

On August 12, Qantas announced it would temporarily pull six Boeing 737-400s from service after discovering an irregularity in maintenance paperwork.

On August 13, a Qantas Boeing 747-300 from Melbourne was grounded in New Zealand after an engine shut down on approach to Auckland. Also on the same day, Qantas flight QF31 to London - the same flight affected by the incident - was delayed because a crucial screw needed urgent maintenance, while a Boeing 767 jet had a hydraulic failure that affected the plane's steering as it landed at Sydney on a flight from Melbourne. The plane left a trail of hydraulic fluid as it touched down, forcing the runway to close for 40 minutes as the spill was mopped up.

On August 15, a technical problem delayed a Brisbane to Melbourne flight for more than 30 minutes, while a small body panel fell from a Qantas jumbo en route to Singapore from Melbourne .

On August 17, a rudder problem delayed the departure of a Sydney-bound plane at London's Heathrow Airport by more than 16 hours.

On August 20, two flights were canceled between Perth and Sydney and Perth and Melbourne because of technical problems.

Qantas has a near perfect safety record, However, they have had more near misses than any other airline. Is Qantas still a safe airline to fly?