Qantas 747 emergency landing
August 4th, 2008 | by Dusk |
Hole in Qantas 747
From user ytinformes2, youtube
A London-bound Qantas Boeing 747-400 carrying 365 passengers and crew made an emergency landing in the Philippines this morning “after a loud bang punched a hole” in the jet’s fuselage, according to The Associated Press.
The New York Times (free registration) writes that “passengers described a loud bang and the emergency oxygen masks deploying in the cabin before the plane started a controlled descent to a lower altitude and changed course for Manila.” The London Telegraph says the jet “suddenly lost cabin pressure … (and) when the aircraft landed a two metre-long gash had appeared close to the baggage hold. Suitcases could be seen through the gap.”
Several overseas media reports told of a “rapid” descent, but AFP says “the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the plane had been flying at 29,000 feet when the crew were forced into an emergency descent after a section of the fuselage separated and resulted in rapid decompression of the cabin. It said the crew descended the aircraft to 10,000 feet ‘in accordance with established procedures’ and diverted the plane safely to Manila.” The flight originated in Melbourne, Australia, and had made a scheduled stop in Hong Kong before it continued on toward its final destination of London.
One passenger on the flight, Dr. June Kane of Melbourne, is quoted by the Melbourne Herald Sun as saying she heard “incredible boom.” Then, she says “there was wood and newspapers flying past me … and then oxygen masks fell down. The moment it happened I thought we were going to plunge to our deaths.” Octavio Lina, a Manila airport operations manager, tells The Guardian of London that portions of the plane floor had collapsed, exposing the cargo area. There were no injuries reported, but Lina says: “Upon disembarkation there were some passengers who vomited. You can see in their faces that they were really scared.”
The exact cause of the incident remains undetermined. “The pilot has some pressurization warnings about a door on the left hand side of the aircraft, but exactly what went wrong is still being determined,” Peter Gibson of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority says to Australia’s ABC News. The Telegraph says officials from the United Kingdom’s Scotland Yard do not believe an explosion led to the hole. The Independent of London adds “investigators should be able to quickly pinpoint the basic reason” of the incident.
“It should become apparent fairly quickly if something exploded or something broke,” Kieran Daly, editor of Air Transport Intelligence, tells the Telegraph. “Sometimes with accidents, the essential gist of the cause is very quickly known, but then it can take a much longer period of time to know exactly what happened,” Daly adds. Despite the frightening episode, Qantas’ staff received high marks from the passengers. “It was very well handled by the Qantas staff — that is the thing that stood out to me. They did a very good job of keeping everyone calm, keeping it under control,” one passenger tells the Belfast Telegraph.
BBC News Video
Sidenote
The Captain blamed MAS for handling the plane but MAS does not handle the 747 for Qantas. MAS handles the 737 only.