Qantas plane makes emergency landing

[Radzi 2]

Rapid Decomp! And you thought it can only happens in the sim during base checks.

 

As for maintenance, I hope the report will come out on where the maintenance of that particular airframe was done.

[Pieter C. 5]

It looks like an explosion that cause the damage. It was lucky that the debris didn't hit the engine or wing.

 

Agree more with KK's statement...

 

 

The decompression was not caused by explosion of bomb or oxygen bottle.

 

The separation of wing to body fairing is quite clean, consistent to fatigue or crack. After separation, the air flow weaken and ruptured the aluminium skin i.e. decompression.

 

If an explosion occured, IMHO, the plane would be no more...indeed, looks more like fatigue/crack to me...

Excellent airmanship by the cockpit-crew btw !!!

 

Qantas Plane Makes Emergency Landing In Manila

 

July 25, 2008

A Qantas Airways plane made an emergency landing in Manila on Friday after plunging thousands of feet and losing cabin pressure during a flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne.

 

Passengers reported hearing a loud bang before the aircraft rapidly lost altitude and said the Boeing 747-400 had a hole the size of a mini-van in its fuselage when it landed in the Philippine capital.

 

It was an amazing experience, but not a good one," Glenyce Johnson, 47, said. "The aircraft plunged from around 40,000 feet to 25,000 feet."

 

Qantas confirmed the loss of cabin pressure and the rupture in the plane's fuselage and said all 346 passengers and 19 crew disembarked safely. The aircraft was being inspected.

 

Johnson, who was traveling home to Australia, saw items flying out of the plane. Oxygen masks were released.

 

"I have to compliment the pilot for doing a good job, for safely landing the plane."

 

QF30 left Hong Kong at 9 am local time and was due to land in Melbourne at 9:45 pm. The flight originated in London.

 

(Reuters)

 

[Irni Mastura 0]

With Qantas outsourcing maintenance to Malaysia, (it) is certainly worrying a lot of us pilots.

 

Why is it so worrisome? Are we that bad?

[M Razmyn 0]

was in MNL today...managed to get some shots of the VH-OJK...while taxying to RW24 for departure...

the aircraft is already at the hangar at this time & the gaping hole was already covered by clear plastic sheets...

too bad i was not at the airport when this A/C landed...

 

 

as for the response from the aussies...guess its not surprising...

they lose their jobs caused by the outsourcing & by putting the blame strategically...maybe they're hoping to get it back...

now i wonder if this one particular A/C did actually been recently serviced in KUL...any info on this..anyone??

 

DB

[Louis L. 2]

here they go again , blaming asian ........... from the statement , it is like somehow worrying the fact that they do maintenance at Malaysia , i am speechless ........way to go

[Hakan 2]

what kind of maintenances applies to Qantas airplanes in Malaysia? line check, A-B-C-D check,fabric level check?

[Loh Wilson 0]

Thank God no one is injured. Kudos to the crews whom bringing the plane down safely.

 

OT : Louis, you post at 5am ??? No need sleep ar ?? I woke up at 5.30am because I slept at 8pm yesterday

 

 

[Louis L. 2]

*OT ....... ..... well......

[FK Wong 0]

wow! that guy who recorded it must be brave and calm. critical moment still can record the scene.

 

i think that guy only started recording only when the aircraft stabilize if you notice on the flight information display screen they were descending passing 9800ft and lower.

[Simon 3]

Hope Qantas or any drongo will not blame us Asians again.

Maybe yes maybe not Too bad it took off from HKG before the incident

[yeadrian 0]

more bad reviews for Malaysia.....

 

Agence France-Presse - 7/26/2008 3:19 AM GMT (excerpt)

Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported that engineers discovered a large amount of corrosion in the jumbo during a major refurbishment earlier this year.

Under the front page headline "Rust Bucket", the newspaper said the 17-year-old jet received a new interior at Melbourne's Avalon airport in March and said aviation sources had told it engineers had found a lot of corrosion.

A senior Qantas pilot told the Telegraph that Friday's drama may be related to the airline's decision to outsource aircraft maintenance to Malaysia.

"This could well be the direct result of Qantas having stand-in engineers, or from outsourcing maintenance to Malaysia," the unnamed pilot told the newspaper. "It has been talked about a lot here and we have been told to be extra vigilant when you walk around the aircraft.

 

"With Qantas outsourcing maintenance to Malaysia, (it) is certainly worrying a lot of us pilots.".

The Boeing 747-400 took off from London with 346 passengers and 19 crew on board and was heading to Melbourne after a stopover in Hong Kong when the incident occurred.

Edited July 26, 2008 by yeadrian

[Raj 0]

"This could well be the direct result of Qantas having stand-in engineers, or from outsourcing maintenance to Malaysia," the unnamed pilot told the newspaper. [/b]"It has been talked about a lot here and we have been told to be extra vigilant when you walk around the aircraft.

 

"With Qantas outsourcing maintenance to Malaysia, (it) is certainly worrying a lot of us pilots.".

 

WTF, as if the aircraft did come to Malaysia for maintainance..Utter Rubbish!

 

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

Yeah I do not think they've sent many aircraft here , if they have , I sure as hell haven't seen many of them !

 

And secondly , has Malaysia Airlines or any other carrier that have sent their planes over here for maintenance have any problems like this ?

[Nik H. 3]

I surely hope the Senior QF pilot was not misquoted about him mentioning Malaysia in his statement. If he really said that, I'd like to sue his pants off.

 

Our planes and Pilots are good enough for Households of Saudi Royalty, Our own PM, and even the top Football teams of the World and many other top High Net worth individuals. Even the Financial big wigs of the Singapore Government usde Mh Charter Services riding on Malaysian planes. Ex President Clinton too flew on our old B737-400 three years ago from SIN to BWN when he chartered our planes.

 

If the planes are in such state, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man Utd and now Chelsea would not dare put their whole team on board. Especially Manchester Utd after their accident in Munich where half the team were decimated.

 

While we do the maintenance, the planes were subjected to QF quality control when it was signed off after work completion. I hope this is not typical of Aussies as I have great respect for them. In fact, many were my F/Os when they lost their job in the great strike of 89 and flew for MH. Most wrer good pilots, almost as good as the Malaysian F/Os that I flew with then.

 

How BLOODY shallow.

[Ignatius 4]

I told you this would happen , their laser pointing fingers are now on us even before making full investigation over the matter, utter rubbish and showing how unprofessional those blokes can be.

Capt Nik made a point.. all MH's planes are maintained by the very same people who maintained other airlines.. they should just shut their mouth for now and let the investigating team find out the root of the problem, run through all the maintenance log , then if it leads to us.. by all means I believe we are open enough to accept the fault.

Those pilot being hailed as handling the incident heroic and splendidly? Oh common, those are basic procedures gone thru by all pilots around the globe, they should thank God for not having bigger problems than that, now even dare to point fingers at those who have done their hours maintaining planes to tip top conditions without second thoughts!! He should well blame their mechanics over his own accidents in the near future!!

 

[Radzi 2]

Check out this tread.

 

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/g...d.main/3862862/

 

Received this evening from sources serious corrosion issues have been detected on QF's VH-OJK while undergoing maintenance at AVALON. This is the first aircraft to under go cabin reconfiguration with the all NEW Premium Y/C cabin. Sources tell me the launch date has further slipped once to 5th of March operating the QF001 SYD-BKK-LHR route...

Let's keep our finger's crossed and hope -OJK recovers from her plastic surgery!

 

Guess Avalon is not in Malaysia, no?

[Sandeep G 1]

It's typical...

 

I'm sorry, but if this is the sort of tactics the Australians are going to resort to this kind of finger-pointing and name-blaming then they should pull their finger out quickly and have a whiff.. cos the s#1t that they are producing just BLOODY STINKS!

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

So, we just stand still and smile after the accusation? No counter press release to put Malaysia's stand on the blaming issue by whoever responsible - Transport Minister, Information Minister? Another tidak apa approach taken?

[Chan CS 0]

So, we just stand still and smile after the accusation? No counter press release to put Malaysia's stand on the blaming issue by whoever responsible - Transport Minister, Information Minister? Another tidak apa approach taken?

 

Simply because they are not much interested. Some more they are very busy giving warning for Anwar's case. They are busy about the Mercs, Camry. Lots of internal problems... They are always busy

[CV Thian 0]

And the latest from thestar.com:

 

Saturday July 26, 2008 MYT 8:48:40 PM

 

We don't handle Boeing 747s, says MAS

 

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines has refuted a Qantas pilot's allegation that maintenance of the Quantas Boeing 747 that suffered a ruptured fuselage on Friday had been outsourced to Malaysia.

 

MAS says the Australian-based airline has also confirmed the claim to be untrue.

 

MAS senior general manager Mohd Roslan Ismail in a statement Saturday said that MAS only handled the engineering and maintenance of Qantas’ Boeing 737 aircraft and not the 747.

 

He added that MAS’ engineering and maintenance division held an excellent track record.

 

“The increasing number of foreign airlines who outsource their aircraft to us is a testimony to our success in this field,” he said, adding that third party contracts comprise 40% of their business.

 

An unnamed senior Qantas pilot on Saturday told The Daily Telegraph, a Sydney tabloid, that the mid-air calamity on Qantas flight QF30 from London to Melbourne could have been caused by the airline’s outsourcing of maintenance to Malaysia.

 

A rupture on the fuselage of the 17-year-old aircraft occurred while flying at 8,839m over the South China Sea from a Hong Kong stopover and forced the pilot to perform an emergency landing in Manila at 11am.

 

None of the 346 passengers and 19 crew was hurt in the emergency landing.

 

A sheet of metal was torn from the front of the right wing. The plane bearing registration VH-OJK had received a new interior at Victoria’s Avalon airport in March.

 

[Walter Sim 1]

i think that senior captain has made a completely fool out of himself.

[Y C LEONG 1]

indeed.. first blame on singapore mro.. now malaysia.. perhaps they should enrich their knowledge on how their company outsource the maintenance.. shallow.. really shallow..

[Azuan Zahdi 2]

Talk about pointing fingers to Malaysia.

 

I'm pointing back my FINGER. Guess we all know which finger.

[Louis L. 2]

now i guess those statement by MH really clarified those "brilliant" statement by the qantas pilot .......... he should appologize or else , i guess somebody at MH sure will do something ..........

 

 

[Naim 6]

Exploding oxygen tank one theory of QF30

Article from: Sunday Herald Sun

 

Liam Houlihan and Shannon Deery

 

July 27, 2008 12:00am

 

QANTAS chief Geoff Dixon yesterday said he was "horrified" by a mid-air disaster that ripped a hole in a jumbo jet.

 

And Mr Dixon said the airline had no idea of the cause.

 

Mr Dixon held a conference in Sydney to apologise to passengers of QF30 as investigators hinted that an exploding oxygen tank could have been behind the accident.

 

"I'm sorry (passengers) were subjected to what was obviously such a frightening experience, but everyone is safe," he said.

 

"I was horrified. I think that this is a very, very serious incident. We are not downplaying it."

 

But many expressed dismay no one from Qantas was in Melbourne to meet them and apologise for their ordeal as they landed at the airport yesterday morning.

 

A global investigation was launched into what caused a giant hole in the Qantas 747-400 at 9000m.

 

An exploding oxygen tank or luggage item or puncture caused by a loose panel were cited as possible causes as experts rejected corrosion as being to blame.

 

Officers from Australian, Philippines and US transport bodies converged on the plane in Manila last night.

 

Among them were Qantas investigators and four Australian Transport Safety Bureau officers.

 

"It is early days and we just don't know what we're dealing with here, other than we've got a hole in the side of an aeroplane," ATSB spokesman Ian Brokenshire said.

 

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said: "There's a lot of talk it could have been an oxygen bottle blast, which would go up into the cabin."

 

Qantas head of engineering David Cox said all of the plane's servicing was undertaken in Australia, adding he did not rule out returning the plane to the skies.

 

"I would think it's repairable," he said.

 

Passengers told of their worries about the 17-year-old jumbo.

 

David Saunders, of St Kilda, said he had a bad feeling about the plane.

 

"The first thing I saw on the plane was a panel hanging off," he said. "Then I saw the seal on the door looked old and worn, then I noticed there was water coming through the ceiling.

 

"I thought I was going to die. I thought we were going down into the sea. I just grabbed my passport out of my bag and put it in my pocket so that if my body was found they could identify it quicker."

 

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...221-661,00.html