MERGED: Qantas Decompression ?
 

Are the holes in the Swiss Cheese lining up??

From Today's, "Australian".

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Qantas flight 'plunges as door pops'

July 25, 2008

A QANTAS flight plunged 20,000 feet after a door 'popped' mid-flight, passengers are reporting.

The plane has just made an emergency landing in the Philippines following reports that a door "popped", causing depressurisation, during a flight between London and Melbourne.

Qantas is refusing to confirm the incident, but passengers who have called Herald Sun Online say oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling during the incident.

Others said the plane suddenly plunged from 30,000 feet to 10,000 feet.

One passenger reported the pilot did 'an amazing job' of controlling the craft.

Flight QF 30 was due to arrive in Melbourne around 10pm tonight.

It was one hour from Hong Kong when the incident occured.

The plane is now on the tarmac at Manila airport with all passengers - the majority of them Australians - on board.

i think its just Murphy Law ~ 'if its possible to happen, then it will happen'

Not saying this is a minor event but every thing will get to the media now.

Qantas Lames deserve to be treated a lot better than the current crap that they are dealing with. I hope that there were a few in management and their families on that flight. It may give them some better insight as to the REAL seriousness of the business of flying and not just showing shareholders and boardrooms flashy numbers at the end of the financial year.

As our aircraft get older and our maintenance gets more removed from our experienced local LAMEs, the more this will continue. I for one hope things like this - make the bean counters wake up as to the true value of GOOD maintenance. I fly these aircraft, the bean counters fly the desk (smelling of rich mahogany of course:ok:)

I did have to laugh at the sensationalist "plunges" 20,000ft....like they lost control of the aircraft or something....

I'd like to be a fly on the wall of the QF department of spin doctoring right now!

"plunged"!:ugh:

Isn't that what you do when you try and unstick the sink?

Whilst I agree that QF maybe under the media spotlight, from a LAME's perspective it is utterly frustrating to watch an airline that was once known for it's impeccable safety standards reduced to this. It's been one thing after another, and of no co-incidence as some imply.

Of course we must manage cost control/cutting to remain competitive and profitable, however people currently managing Engineering have no idea or experience on how to carry this out in a safe and effective manner.

When we do suffer our first hull loss, a lot of lessons will be learnt. Hopefully this may also spur a much needed shake-up of our incompetent air safety regulator.

From Qantas plane in emergency landing

"There was a huge explosion," Mr Higgins said.

"We found out later that there was a huge hole in the side of the plane.

Ahhh say what now????

Can someone explain or is this media beat up at its best!??!?

BR

It seems the aircraft is a 747-400:ooh:

Re some previous comments, is this in any way to do with off shore maintenance? OR do you just mean maintenance cut backs in general? :confused:

Maybe the use of the term "emergency descent" wasn't quite as sensationalist as the word "plunged".

Apparently it has a 2metre gash.:ok:

I'd bet that management would buy a new aircraft and change regos and still say they had never had a hull loss. Wasn't the Bangkok incident a write off?

Haha, I just saw a brief news update on TV for this story....complete with footage of a 737 landing.....are they using 737s to fly to London now?

Correct. VH-OJK

doors popping open and holes in things....sounds like another day in GA

serriously though, ever snice QF has gone overseas for some of their maintaince needs they seems to be an increase of incidents. Hurry Up CASA and just make that report into overseas maint orgs public

Was VH-OJK on ACA sometime last year about the staples in the wiring from Singapore maintenance?

Good to know it landed safely

Aaron.

WTF .. skin fatigue?:confused:

Speaking from the Manila airport, passenger Dr June Kane says she heard a loud bang from underneath the plane, and saw debris fly through the cabin.

"I'm looking at the plane now and on the left hand side, just forward of the wing, there's a gaping hole from the wing to the underbody," she said.

"It's about two metres by four metres and there's baggage hanging out so you assume that there's a few bags that may have gone missing."