Great post Litebulbs, and thanks.
I was called back to top up crew O2 the other day, that was 80psi above min dispatch, because of the possibility of flying over high terrain, so I find it hard that QANTAS would release a leaky aircraft on a long sector. Unless, because of the leak, they filled the tanks upto max. In my previous life, 1750 to 1800psi was max and now we will top up at 1300ish to about 1700psi. If they had a known problem and it was on a long sector, you would be inclined to get as much as you could in, which, if there was a problem somewhere in the system, would increase the chance of a failure to a weak point.
I still find it hard to believe that a bottle would let go without some external force, other than dropping from its mount, influencing a rupture of the bottle.
As I have said before, they are solid lumps!
******DISCLAIMER******** something within the cargo pallet went off and through the sidewall panel, hit the bottle/regulator at speed and caused the rupture.*********SPECULATION OVER**********
My thoughts exactly, this one's a real head-banger. Bulbs, I was just speaking hypothetically. I'm sure Qantas is not going to dispatch a bad leaker on a long segment. But assuming that leak rates will remain constant is an iffy business.
We did the same thing with "oil burner" engines. Put an extention pipe on the oil fill so that the sucker wouldn't run out of oil before getting there!
Could one of you SLF's check and google NTSB oxygen bottle accidents for me? I don't think it's ever happened. Do something useful for a change while Vortas and Bulbs think about this some more....