The 767 aircraft was situated at the Brisbane Airport in Australia and was undergoing maintenance at the time of discovery. Qantas responded with "Given the nature of the incident, we immediately referred it to the Australian Federal Police", but they assured the public that "There was no operational safety risk at any stage".
The discovery happened days before Qantas decided to ground its entire fleet of Aircraft and promised to lock out the unions whose constant strikes were costing the company millions of dollars. Australian courts responded by demanding Qantas end its lock out and ordered the unions to put their strike on hold.
The Australian airliner Qantas was founded in November 1920 and is an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services", it is also Australias largest (and the words second oldest) airliner.
This poses the question: was the sabotage caused by some of those on strike?, although the union which represents aircraft engineers has said that it was unlikely to have been caused because of the disputes.
