Qantas plane has engine problems

What the hell is happening at Qantas Airlines?

Once one of the most reliable carriers in the world, Australia's national airline has been beset by mechanical problems over the past few years and that has cast doubt over the reliability of the company's fleet.

Qantas' latest incident: One of its Boeing 747s was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok after the pilot shut down one of the plane's Rolls-Royce-powered engines while on a flight to London.  According to Qantas, the pilot noticed “vibration and high temperatures” in one of four engines and managed the land the plane with 308 passengers aboard without incident.

However, this latest incident may have more to do with Rolls-Royce than Qantas. That's because earlier this week a Cathay Pacific plane made an emergency landing in Singapore after the pilot noticed sparks coming from his plane's Rolls-Royce engines.

I'm heading to Beijing over Japan

I'm off to Beijing Friday (March 18) and no I'm not worried about being exposed to high levels of radiation from those leaky Japanese nuclear reactors.

Anyone heading to China, or anywhere else in Asia for that matter, should not be worried about being contaminated because the infected plume of smoke from those damaged reactors will likely hit the West Coast of North America before it hits anywhere in Asia thanks to wind patterns.

My Cathay Pacific flight will probably fly right over Japan and at 35,000 feet, I'm not a bit worried.

I appreciate why people are nervous about travelling to Japan and completely understand why many Canadians who scheduled trips to that unfortunate nation in the next few weeks have cancelled or postponed their departures.

However, why do people assume what happens in Japan is happening elsewhere in Asia?

Did we all fail geography? Japan is an island unto itself, literally, and Tokyo is over 2,100 km from Beijing. Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore are even further away. Even Japan's closest neighbour South Korea is not in danger.

I'll report back daily so stay tuned!