"Naval base transmissions may have led to Qantas jet plunge"
From the Melbourne 'Age' newspaper -
Naval base signals may have led to Qantas jet plunge | theage.com.au
Naval base transmissions may have led to Qantas jet plunge- Brendan Nicholson
- November 14, 2008 - 10:46AM
Civil Aviation Safety investigators are considering the possibility that transmissions from the top-secret joint US-Australia naval base near Exmouth may have caused a Qantas aircraft to dive suddenly last month, seriously injuring a flight attendant and at least 13 passengers. The base in Western Australia is used by the US Navy to communicate with its nuclear submarine fleet in the Pacific and by the Australian Navy to maintain contact with its fleet of six Collins-class submarines.
Kerryn Macaulay, of the Air Transport Safety Bureau, said yesterday it was considered unlikely that a low frequency transmission from the Harold E. Holt transmitter near Exmouth could have caused the problem but that possibility was still being investigated.
She said it was also possible that an electronic device being used by a passenger might have interfered with the aircraft's computer system.
Ms Macaulay said examination of information from the aircraft's flight data recorder indicated that at the time the aircraft's autopilot was disconnected.