Posted on 07/25/2008 1:02:20 AM PDT by naturalman1975
A MELBOURNE-BOUND Qantas jumbo jet plunged 20,000 feet today after a 1.5m hole in the fuselage caused a rapid decompression. Witnesses said there was a bang and a rush of wind before oxygen masks fell and the plane began an emergency descent.
The plane was about 320km out of The Philippines capital Manila en route from Hong Kong when warning lights alerted pilots to the decompression in the cargo hold.
“The aircraft had a rapid decompression and at the same time there's been some damage to the fuselage,” an Australian Transport Safety Bureau spokesman said.
“As a result of the rapid decompression, the oxygen masks dropped and the crew did an emergency descent to 10,000 feet.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
/johnny
I was on a flight over the Colorado Rockies that experienced cabin decompression - the first thing we knew as passengers was that all of the oxygen masks popped out from above the seats, the pilots put the plane into a rapid descent, and a flight attendant SCREAMED “get your oxygen” — it was quite a ride, and we turned around to land in Denver. I was just hoping as we descended that the pilots had a good handle on where all the 14,000 foot peaks were around us b/c I knew they would be taking us down to 10,000 feet as rapidly as possible, and we were over the middle of Colorado where there are large numbers of peaks in the 12-14,000 foot range.
Don’t think there was any hole in the fuselage but it sure was a wild ride.......
No mention of the type of plane?
747?
Misleading headline, pilots train for such an incident. But Rainman still is right some 20 years later.
Beat me by 12 seconds.
It’s still a very safe airline, but the idea that Qantas has never had a fatality is only a half truth.
It has never had a fatal accident involving a jet aircraft, but there were eight fatal accidents prior to 1951 - two of which involved war service (a Short Empire flying boat was shot down by the Japanese in 1942 and a Lockheed Lodestar crashed while working for the USAAF in 1943).
Quantas and Southwest, if I have to fly. Not that I'll put up with the TSA crap for anyplace where I can drive, walk or paddle in under 3 weeks.
/johnny
Need new underpants!
The location of the burst may have significance, just forward of the wing box.
Yep - 16th July 1951, a Qantas DHA-3 crashed off the coast of Papua New Guinea with the loss of the pilot and all six passengers after a failure of the central propeller. That was Qantas' last fatal crash. It is statistically the safest airline in the world when you look at distance travelled without a fatality. Southwest is the safest when you look at number of aircraft, and number of passengers carried without fatalities, so your choices seem to be wise ones based on the statistics.
I had a boyfriend once who told me all Soutwest pilots were ex-Kamikaze pilots - so I prefer to travel with them.
“A ‘bang’ in the cargo hold”; am I the only one who finds this suspicious?
A failed bombing attempt?
Yes. To me a "plunge" is when the plane is "doing it" of it's own accord, not the pilots doing it under a controlled emergency procedure.
this is what they call “brown trousers time” if your trousers aren’t brown when this begins, they will be when it’s over. yeesh!
gimme good old terra firma every time!
Qantas Airline Crash in Bangkok, Thailand
346 pax and 19 crew on the flight
What caused the damage? Does any one know?
Does anyone know what was the cause of the damage?
guy on phone: “ah yeah, honey, i’m going to be a little late tonight. there’s a hole in my plane.”
The Philippines are a hotspot of Muslim terrorists, and they’ve attempted to bomb aircraft there before.
It’s situations like this that remind us airline pilots are not akin to “glorified bus drivers”.
That airplane was repaired and returned to service.
Yes, but it doesn’t cause a panic in New Rooms across America.
new=news
From the looks of the penetration, a lot of metal tearing outward. Looks like something might have gone bang, but not enough to damage the structure. So no, you're not the only one.
And the relevance is?
The flight didn't originate from the Philippines, it wasn't planning on going to the Philipines, it just diverted to Manila as it was the closest airport with the right runway at the time of the incident.
LOL...if they aren't able to kill even themselves in a plane, you know they won't be able to kill any passengers, eh?
It was probably some type of Muslim telekinesis as they flew nearby.
And then there was the recent Qantas 747 incident in which a clogged drain in a galley sink ended up shutting down all 4 generators a few minutes before landing: http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/BackedUpSinkCripples747_196921-1.html
Not clear exactly when this happened, but apparently late 2007 or first few days of 2008.
That is it, exactly!
I flew Qantas between LAX and AKL (LA to Auckland, NZ). It was a pretty good flight and the service was pretty good. I would fly them again. I would like to return to NZ sometime again and even get over to Australia.
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