Qantas 747 lands safely after explosive decompression

[Rooster Cruiser]

Not the sort of thing people enjoy, but no injuries thankfully.  The Australia Herald Sun Online is quoted saying it happened after a "door" popped open in flight.  I'm not sure that is correct as it appears the cargo door is still intact in the photo with the article.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,391024,00.html

MANILA, Philippines —  A Qantas flight en route to Australia from London made an emergency stop in Manila on Friday after a loud bang punched a hole in the Boeing 747-400's fuselage, officials and passengers said.

There were no injuries, but some of the 345 passengers vomited after disembarking, said Manila International Airport Authority deputy manager for operations Octavio Lina.

In a statement from Sydney, Qantas confirmed the hole in its fuselage and said it was being inspected by engineers.

A report by the Manila International Airport Authority quoting pilot John Francis Bartels, said an initial investigation indicated there was an "explosive decompression." There were no details.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said QF30 made an emergency descent from 29,000 feet to 10,000 feet.

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 2.5 to 3 yards (meters) in diameter.

Passengers who talked to the media at the airport described hearing an explosion and then oxygen masks were released.

"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.

Australia's Herald Sun Online quoted passengers as saying the plane plunged 20,000 feet after a door "popped" during the flight.

Michael Rahill, 57, an architect from Melbourne, said the bang sounded "like a tire exploding, but more violently."

The passengers were taken to several hotels while waiting for another plane to Melbourne, said an airline officer who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media.

Chief Superintendent Atilano Morada, head of the police Aviation Security Group, said his officers, including explosives experts, may assist in the airline's investigation.

"So far, they don't want us to touch it, so we will respect the aircraft owner. But we will make our personnel available if they need assistance in the investigation," he said.

[BrianGMFS]

It looks like the fillet between the wing root and the fuselage separated. Not sure how that might have caused a decompression unless it took out a bleed air line or something when it decided to part ways with the aircraft.

Brian

[Mic]

The RH wing root leading edge fairing is missing due to the air blast exhausting from the cabin through a huge hole in the fuselage skin. The defect looks localized on the cargo compartment.

[Oddball]

Just seen it on the news here a fair bit of damage was done by the looks of it

[Mic]

I heard on french radio this morning it could be done by the portable oxygen bottle explosion : this bottle is miising and Quantas wonder if it can be the cause. They are checking all the oxygen portable bottle on their fleet today.

[Oddball]

heard the same thing last night on the BBC news, ive heard about old oxy generators going on fire on a A/C when the where getting transported by air so it could be possible.

[Rooster Cruiser]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,391923,00.html

Here's part of this story:

SYDNEY, Australia —  The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration warned airlines to inspect oxygen cylinders on their planes months before the dramatic mid-air emergency last week aboard a Qantas flight that investigators suspect was caused by an exploding tank.

The air-worthiness directive, issued in April and effective in May, followed a report that certain oxygen cylinder supports in Boeing 747-400s may not have been properly heat-treated, which the FAA said could cause oxygen leakage and subsequent fire hazards.

Australian authorities say investigators are focusing on an oxygen bottle missing from the cargo hold of the Qantas 747-400 that was ripped open at 29,000 feet over the South China Sea on Friday.

According to another article, this airplane is missing an oxygen bottle that is normally in this vicinity and there are fragments of it and its valve embedded in parts of the structure.  What remains to be seen is whether the bottle was the cause of the decompression or if it blew up because of the decompression.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,391941,00.html

MANILA, Philippines —  An investigator says a valve and other fragments that could be from a missing oxygen tank have been found in a Qantas jet that had its fuselage ripped open mid-flight.

The missing tank has become the focus of the probe into what tore open a car-sized hole in the plane 29,000 feet and forced an emergency landing in the Philippines on Friday.

Neville Blyth, a senior investigator from the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau, told a news conference Monday that the fragments would be tested to see if they came from the tank, which is designed to provide passengers emergency oxygen.

He says the fragments were found close to where the missing tank was stored.

Moving day today... gotta go.

[Oddball]

Just heard on a news bulletin that another Qantas flight had to be diverted due to a door problem no other details I'm afraid.

[Mic]

It seems the second event is "only" a landing gear door trouble... not very serious but now, every Quantas event will be highlighted by journalist ... unfortunatly.

[gibbo_335]

AND we had a QANTAS 747 land here in Brisneyland yesterday and promptly had a hydraulic failure and was towed to the teminal 

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24100516-661,00.html

A QANTAS aircraft has run into problems while landing at Brisbane - the third incident the airline has experienced in just over three days.

The Boeing 737 flying from Sydney with 155 passengers was towed from the runway after a hydraulics failure during Sunday night's landing.

A back-up system cut in but the plane was pulled to the terminal as a precautionary measure.
One engineering source said a "large pipe - a kind of artery" failed on the primary system.

A Qantas spokesman confirmed the incident on flight QF548, aboard a 737-800 which is a relatively new plane.

A passenger said cabin crew had confided they did not feel as safe working for the airline because they believed maintenance was being done offshore or parts were not changed as frequently as they should.

"I was told that too often too many little things were going wrong and planes were an accident just waiting to happen," the passenger said.

A retired engineer told The Courier-Mail too many "pencil inspections" were occurring with Qantas planes.

[Mic]

This is always the same problem : as soon an airline suffered from an impressionant event, an army of journalist try to collect other event to publish a "new black serie in air transport" ... just like flies over sh.t...

Quantas is actually on of the safest airlines in the world, it may be very interesting for a journalist (and the sale record of his media) to demonstrate the contrary.

[Fabo]

So... is Qantas having first hull loss or are they repairing that ship? I have no idea how much of damage has been made so to me both versions are possible.

[Rooster Cruiser]

So... is Qantas having first hull loss or are they repairing that ship? I have no idea how much of damage has been made so to me both versions are possible.

That's not even close, Fabo.     The 747 is a BIG airframe, and you can repair a huge amount of it.

[Rooster Cruiser]

This next article just goes to show you two things; 1) Bad things happen in threes, and 2) The press are gonna hound Qantas over every single incident from now on.  Man, they're like flies on Sh!t right now!  Captain makes a precautionary landing and they call it an emergency!?!?      All I can say is that the flight crew should have told the passengers earlier on what was happening so they wouldn't get nervous.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396523,00.html

A Philippines-bound Qantas jet had to make an emergency landing at Sydney airport in Australia Saturday because of a leak in the wing, the third mid-air emergency for the carrier in a week.

The captain of Qantas Flight 19, a Boeing 767-300 with 200 passengers on board, had to dump fuel over the ocean and then circle for about an hour before he was able to land the jumbo jet safely, according to news.com.au.

A hydraulic leak in the controls in the wing was detected on the plane shortly after it took off from Sydney International Airport at 1:20 p.m. en route to Manila, a spokeswoman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) told news.com.au.

Qantas said the leak wasn't apparent prior to takeoff.

"On inspection, engineers determined that fluid was coming from the spoiler actuator that was not evident before departure," a Qantas spokeswoman told AAP.

The captain requested emergency clearance, and landed about 3 p.m.

Passengers said the plane's altitude remained unusually low after it lifted off.

"About five minutes after taking off, it was very obvious the plane was very low in the sky. ... It was very strange," one person on board told Fairfax. "For 45 minutes, we did not know what was going on."

RelatedStories
Exploding Oxygen Tank Hit Cabin of Qantas Jet in Mid-Air Qantas Passenger: 'I Was Sure We Were Going to Die' Qantas Plane Dives 20,000 Feet After Hole Ripped Mid-Air in Fuselage Report: Qantas Plane That Made Emergency Stop had History of Corrosion Photo Essays
Qantas Emergency Landing Qantas and air officials denied that the three emergencies in the past week were an indication of larger safety issues for the carrier, and said there was no link among the incidents nor was there a lowering of safety standards.

Last Saturday, an oxygen cylinder blew a huge hole into the fuselage of a Qantas jet flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne. The plane had to make an emergency landing in Manila.

On Tuesday, a 737-800 en route from Adelaide, Australia, to Melbourne had to return 37 minutes after takeoff because a door opened during flight.

[Rooster Cruiser]

The preliminary report has been published, and they are saying that it was an oxygen bottle that exploded that caused the decompression.  The report did not say why the bottle exploded.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080829/ap_on_re_au_an/australia_qantas

CANBERRA, Australia - 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.

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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 5 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, but did not say what caused the tank to burst.

"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 300 miles 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.

Qantas earlier this month temporarily pulled six planes from service because of irregularities in maintenance records. Qantas said it was a record-keeping issue and there were no safety implications for the aircraft.