Qantas Manila ATSB Preliminary report out
 

Interesting the path of the cylinder!

Also is 4000ft per minute a plummet or a death dive as the media would have us believe?

You wouldn't have wanted to be in that crew seat!

Absolutely amazing... I'm sure I'll be corrected but if in my totally amateur interprtetaion I read this right ...seems the damn thing punched its way up through the cabin floor, propelled itself up the inside of the cabin, moivng the door handle to two thirds open on the way, then went back through the floor into the baggage hold and out through the outer skin into the open air! I've sat in those aircarft so oftem for so so long - and nothing ever happens to aleviate the boredom - but that would have added some realy scary in-flight entertainment, especially if I got the emergency exit row. How it did not hit anyone..... or hit something more structural or damage more avionics or control lines or get ingested into an engine or, or or - seems like lady luck was really smiling that day.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure that path out myself? Did the cylinder split in two and go in different directions, or did it bounce around as described above? It seems far fetched to think it went up, then came back down and then ruptured the fuselage?!

Just a quick edit; it reads as though the rupture on the fuselage happened at the same time as the inital explosion of the tank and that it fell out after travelling through the cabin. That makes more sense.

Qantas proud of excellent safety record
 

The spirit of Australia media release:

About Qantas - Newsroom

Frank

i am still amazed that the bottle, or half of the bottle, can enter the cabin, bounce around as it did, then exit the same hole in the floor it made on its way up, did i also read correctly that the crew portable oxy bottle is missing as well? but it still doesnt exolain why the bottle exploded in the first place, i cant say that exploding oxy bottles are a regular occurrence! was Oil used in its installation? incorrect pressure when the bottle was charged?

I am also interested to know if they're still using steel bottles or kevlar ones?

The bottle did split in two, with the bottom half blasting the hole through the fuselage, with the top half going up into the cabin then exiting through the hole. Could it be something as simple as a manufacturing fault, or a faulty bottle?

Kangaroo, they showed the type of bottle on the TV news last night which weighed in at around 16 or 17 Kg's, so from that I would say steel.

Just a thought... Could the skin have ruptured first, as a result the oxy bottle then going on its rampage.. :confused:

From the report, page 17

http://www.atsb.com.au/publications/...053_Prelim.pdf

They'd be better off with the new kevlar ones wouldn't they?

HWT, the hole was caused by the bottle. There is absolutely no doubt about that.

Word on the street is that the Oxygen bottle went up into the cabin near the attendant seat, hit the fire extinguisher and the portable oxygen bottle there (both are missing as well) where the valve of the big bottle was knocked off, which got propelled onto the door handle, which itself turned but the shaft (bolt) of the handle sheared, the big bottle itself with its valve now missing then went further up into the ceiling and, with the 2 smaller bottles (fire extinguisher and portable oxygen bottle), went back down and out through the hole into the open....... Rumours Network.... but thats the word on the street........

Just as well no one was standing there when it come through the floor. Unless they can find a fault with the bottles from the same batch as the failed one this could probably go into the too hard to explain category. Maybe the ATSB could ask Mythbusters to do some research.

i thought Mythbusters WERE doing the research.

I also remember they also said the found some of the passenger bottle.

The door handle is designed to shear too.

They were steel bottles as said.

There are issues fitting full kevlar bottles as they are very slightly larger than the steel ones. Can not be fitted to crew positions or in the ceiling positions.

Is that a rhetorical question? - If there's the slightest doubt, you can safely assume that the media is talking utter sheet.

4,000 fpm is typical for a 747 with idle thrust, speed brakes extended, and up near Vmo.

IT strikes me as if the cylinder valve went upwards whilst the bottle itself was sucked out as a more logical sequence.

People are right to point out inconsistencies in the exploding bottle theory as we should be applying Ockham's Razor here. Not personal prejudices.:=

Have they found the cylinder valve yet ?

It does not sound to me as if the cylinder itself split open. Rather the valve unseated. For the bottle to have flown up they would have to have been stowed inverted and I gather the bank of bottles were stowed sitting on their bases the right way up. :rolleyes:

I think I would add that it is not inconsistent with failure of the fuselage to occur first and the ULD being sucked into the hole rupturing the tank as a secondary consequence.

It's a good report, but what I find hard to credit is the theory that the remains of the oxy bottle fell out the hole it made on the way up. Consider these facts:
1. Bottle goes 'bang' - hole made in side of aircraft, depressurisation commences. Bottle shoots upstairs, rotating and moving inboard as it proceeds into the ceiling.
2. The hole in the lower deck floor was basically bottle-cross-section-shaped.
2. Cargo was found blocking most of the hole in the fuselage side.

Now it seems unlikely in the extreme to me that the bottle could have fallen back through the hole it made on the way up, then out through the hole in the side. Firstly this would require the bottle remnants to move back outboard in rebound, whilst not moving in a fore and aft sense. Secondly, the bottle would have to be pretty much aligned with the floor entry hole to fit back through, which would require it to rotate back to the vertical. Finally it would have to negotiate the cargo, which would almost certainly have moved to block the fuselage hole by then, to fall overboard.

Plausible?