Qantas 747 emergency landing update

A news.com.au report says that the Qantas aircraft forced to make an emergency landing in the Philippines after a massive hole opened up in its fuselage had been plagued by a history of corrosion.

News Limited reports today that engineers discovered a large amount of corrosion in the Qantas jumbo during a major refurbishment earlier this year.

The 17-year-old Boeing 747-400, registration VH-OJK, received a new interior at Victoria’s Avalon Airport in March, with aviation sources saying aircraft engineers had noted a “lot” of corrosion during the refit, the report said.

QF Flight 30 from London to Melbourne had left Hong Kong airport yesterday after a stopover at 9am local time, (11am AEST), when an explosion ripped through the plane’s underside.

Some of the 346 passengers aboard told of how debris flew through the cabin and oxygen masks dropped down.

The crew brought the plane down to 10,000 feet and requested an emergency landing in Manila, where emergency crews were on hand when it touched down safely.

Qantas said it had arranged for a replacement plane to fly to Manila to collect the passengers return them immediately to Melbourne.

The replacement Boeing 747 was expected to leave the Philippines capital shortly after 11pm local time last night (0100 AEST today), to arrive in Melbourne this morning (AEST).

Phill Restall, from the UK, was woken “with a jolt” by the loud bang before the plane descended rapidly.

“No-one panicked, there was no screaming. It wasn’t your typical television movie,” he told the BBC News website.

“Everyone listened to the cabin staff.”

He said other passengers had told him young children in the main cabin were crying.

Mr Restall, who was reassured to see the engines “still spinning”, said they wore the oxygen masks for about 15 minutes, until the plane levelled out.

The pilot then told passengers they were going to land in Manila to have a look at the damage.

“Everyone was fairly calm, partly because they didn’t realise the extent of it,” he said.

“After we disembarked it started to dawn on people that this was a major incident.”  “There were 350 people up there who were very lucky.”

“Seeing the hole caused a lot of emotion.”  “People were physically shaking.”  “Many realised how close they were to their own mortality.”

Other passengers reported seeing items flying out of the aircraft.

Dr David Newman, of Flight Medicine Systems, says forcing the plane into a rapid descent after a sudden loss of pressure is a standard emergency procedure.

He says that when cruising, the internal cabin is pressurised to a much lower altitude than outside the aircraft, which is also extremely cold.

“When you’ve lost pressure, all that high pressure air in the cabin leaves the airplane and from a medical point of view you’ve got the risk of lack of oxygen – which is compensated for by the oxygen masks,” he said.

“The descent is designed to limit how much time you spend up there and of course one of the other issues is that the mass flow of air leaving the airplane – if it’s an explosive decompression – will take a lot of loose objects and articles around the cabin and basically try and leave the aircraft via the hole.”

The flight, which had been due to arrive in Melbourne at 1145 GMT, landed in Manila just after 0300 GMT (1100 local time ).

Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said engineers were investigating what might have caused the hole in the fuselage.

He said Qantas had provided all passengers with accommodation and a replacement aircraft had been arranged.

The airline boasts of never having lost a jet, but has seen some of its aircraft involved in minor accidents in recent years.

BBC videos of the emergency, the aircraft and the damage can be viewed at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7525125.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7525043.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7524906.stm

A report by The Mole from news.com.au and the BBC