Qantas 747 Makes Emergency Landing After Door Blows Out
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: Qantas, emergency, landing | Themes: Business
Manila (Philippines) - A Qantas jumbo jet made an emergency landing after a faulty door exploded open during flight. Qantas Flight 30 from Hong Kong to Melbourne had to quickly descend 20,000 feet and eventually landed in Manila. None of the 346 passengers and 19 crew on the Boeing 747 aircraft were hurt.
Passengers heard a "huge bang" approximately 20 minutes after the flight took off. It appears a small maintenance or cargo door gave way and left a three-meter diameter hold in the fuselage, decompressing the cabin and causing the oxygen masks to drop. According to some media reports, some passengers started screaming and vomiting, but the pilot and crew quickly took action and calmed everyone down. Some passengers also reported seeing their luggage coming up into the passenger compartment.
The pilot made an emergency descent from 30000 feet to approximately 10000 feet and eventually landed in the Philippines to the thunderous applause of the relieved passengers.
Such explosive decompressions aren’t anything new and they do happen from time to time because of faulty maintenance or metal fatigue. But some experts are already blaming the explosion on a bomb. Sky News interviewed David Learmount, an editor at Flight International magazine, who said some kind of explosive in the suitcase might have caused the explosion.
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Maybe some people should look at the pictures more closely or get their information from more reliable media. Actually the side of the plane got a hole, not exactly in a place where you'd expect any hole, and for sure not a door.
Investigation is pointing out that an oxygen bottle located in that area is now missing and could be the cause of the incident.
First thing to do before setting fingers to keyboard: check the facts.
Looking at the pictures show that it wasn't a door, but a part of the fuselage. Second, investigators eliminated bombs and explosives within hours, due to lack of burn damage and no traces of explosives residue. There is a missing oxygen bottle, and it is suspected that it caused the blowout. All known facts, and known before this article was posted.