Blast on Melbourne-bound airliner forces it to make emergency landing at Manila

[CougarKing]

Well, at least the crew and passengers were okay after the flight.


http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/07/25/flight-hole.html

Hole in airplane forces emergency landing
Passengers describe sound of explosion on London-Australia trip
Last Updated: Friday, July 25, 2008 | 5:47 AM ET

The hole in the fuselage of the Qantas Airways Boeing 747-400 required an emergency landing Friday in Manila. (Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Edwin Loobrera/Associated Press)A Qantas flight en route to Australia from London, England, made an emergency stop in Manila on Friday after a loud bang was heard and a hole punched in the Boeing 747-400's fuselage, officials and passengers said.

There were no injuries, but some of the 346 passengers vomited after disembarking, said Manila International Airport Authority deputy manager for operations Octavio Lina.

Australia's air-safety investigator said an initial investigation suggested "a section of the fuselage separated."

Lina said the cabin's floor gave way, exposing some of the cargo beneath, and part of the ceiling collapsed.

"There is a big hole on the right side near the wing," he said, adding it was 2½ to three metres in diameter.

'I presumed we were going to die'
Passengers who talked to the media at the airport in Manila described hearing an explosion, about an hour after leaving Hong Kong, before oxygen masks were released.

June Kane from Melbourne said there was a "terrific boom." She said the crew remained calm, but urged everyone to put on their masks as the aircraft made a rapid descent.

"I presumed that we were going to die at that point. I didn't think we could possibly land in that plane," she told CBC News.

Another female passenger said she felt she was going to be sucked out of the plane, according to freelance reporter Dean Bernardo in Manila.

"It was a harrowing five minutes of their lives. About 20 children who were on board started crying and panicking," Bernardo said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the aircraft made an emergency descent from 29,000 feet to 10,000 feet.

"We didn't actually fall," Kane said. "I think it was a controlled dive. The captain took us down very quickly to an altitude at which we could breathe without the masks."

Officials said no Canadians were on board the flight. There were about 50 British nationals and seven Chinese people, while the rest of the passengers were from the U.S. and Australia.

"One hour into the flight, there was a big bang, then the plane started going down," passenger Marina Scaffidi, 39, from Melbourne, told the Associated Press by phone from Manila airport. "There was wind swirling around the plane and some condensation."

She said the hole extended from the cargo hold into the passenger cabin.

"The plane kept going down, not too fast, but it was descending," Scaffidi said, adding the jetliner was over the South China Sea when the staff informed passengers they were diverting to Manila.

"No one was very hysterical," she said.

With files from the Associated Press

 

[blacktriangle]

Good on the pilots for bringing it down with everyone ok. 

 

[MedTechStudent]

..thus allowing the Australian Airliner to keep its perfect safety record.

Good on them! 

Days till Kyle boards a plane - 15  :-[

 

[Jorkapp]

Saw it on the news last night. Kudos to the staff for keeping their cool, even maintaining services. If I'm ever headed in the general direction of Australia, I'm definitely flying Qantas.

 

[PMedMoe]

It may have been an oxygen cylinder that exploded.

Qantas told to check oxygen bottles on jumbo jets

 

[aesop081]

Days till Kyle boards a plane - 15  :-[

Just as a purely benign question (as i'm not sure if the smiley is related to the aircraft incident) but do you count the days until you get into a car as well ?

 

[MedTechStudent]

Just as a purely benign question (as i'm not sure if the smiley is related to the aircraft incident) but do you count the days until you get into a car as well ?

Nah already been in one car accident, so the odds of a repeat incident are pretty low.

And I don't actually worry about aircraft crashes, I flown my fair share of commercial flights. 

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Update to this:

Burst oxygen cylinder blew hole in Qantas jet: probe
Last Updated: Friday, August 29, 2008 | 5:21 AM ET
The Associated Press
An oxygen cylinder caused the explosion that blew a car-sized hole in a Qantas jet last month, forcing an emergency landing, air safety officials said Friday.

The release of the interim report by Julian Walsh, acting executive director of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, confirmed earlier suspicions by investigators that an exploding oxygen tank was the cause.

The Boeing 747-438 aircraft, carrying 365 people, was flying over the South China Sea July 25 when the explosion blew a hole in the fuselage five feet in diameter, causing a loss of cabin pressure.

Walsh said one of the seven emergency oxygen cylinders below the cabin floor had exploded.

"On the basis of the physical damage to the aircraft's forward cargo hold and cabin, it is evident that the number 4 passenger oxygen cylinder sustained a failure that allowed a sudden and complete release of the pressurized contents," Walsh told reporters in releasing the report.

The plane — en route from London to Melbourne, Australia — rapidly descended thousands of feet and flew about 480 kilometres to Manila, where it made a successful emergency landing.

No one was injured, but questions were raised about the much-lauded safety of Qantas Airways, which has never lost a jet aircraft because of an accident.

In the weeks after the incident, Qantas planes experienced a number of other problems, including a loss of hydraulic fuel that led to an emergency landing, failure of landing gear, and detached panels.

The problems prompted the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Australia's aviation agency, to launch a review of Qantas Airways' safety standards.

© The Canadian Press, 2008