Engineers investigate stricken Qantas jet
July 26, 2008 - 8:55AM
Source: ABC
A team from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau will arrive in the Philippines today to examine a Qantas plane that made an emergency landing when part of its fuselage blew out.
The Boeing 747 jumbo jet was en route to Melbourne from London when a section of the cargo bay was ripped open.
The pilot made an emergency landing at Manila's Ninoy Aquino international airport, and all 349 passengers were flown to Melbourne this morning.
Attention is now turning to the maintenance record of the 17-year-old plane, amid newspaper reports that a large amount of corrosion was found during a major refurbishment of the aircraft in March.
Qantas is yet to respond to the newspaper reports.
Ian Brokenshire from the Transport Safety Bureau says four investigators will look into the cause of the incident.
"They will start to investigate the damage and investigate the maintenance records and other aspects of the flight, including flight data recorded and cockpit voice recorder," he said.