Qantas 744 Depressurisation

[maddes]

ah priaprism - the facts are plane plunged from fl 30/33 to pretty low in xx minutes. If you had been a passenger no doubt you would have ordered another g and t and gone back to reading your favourite encyclopaedia. Pictures aside, and hack exaggeration understood, let's just say a plane full of pax made an emergency in Manila with a hole of whatever size in whatever side, upon landing the crew were lauded. No worries mate, keep sucking in those aussie cheeks - hope the Qantas shares don't dip too radically .. like the 744...

[Poof in Boots]

As for QANTAS being so safe and not having written off any aircraft, what about the 744 at BKK that overran?

It was not an economical repair and was technically a write off. Is that aircraft still in QANTAS colours?

Qantas Airline Crash in Bangkok, Thailand

[c46r]

NRK radio Norway quotes A Norwegian pax "The stewardesses sat on the floor with their oxygen masks on crying" really calmed the pax down no end !!!

[wings folded]

Now the Daily Telegraph has got hold of footage filmed inside the aircraft, we can learn that:

"In footage shot inside the cabin on a passenger's mobile phone, a child can be heard crying as screens on the front of seats showed the altitude drop from 9,650 feet to 9,500 feet in a matter of seconds. "

I would hate to be involved in such a savage rate of descent. Unless I wanted to land sooner or later.

[luvly jubbly]

Just seen a pax video on BBC News 24.
Journos even mentioned that the emergency descent is standard procedure in these circumstances.

Pax seemed very calm, with light applause on landing.....

Video here:
BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Hole forces Qantas plane to land

Well done crew.

LJ

[point8six]

Well done to the Flight Crew. I wonder if they suspected structural damage and limited the forward speed in the rapid descent? Gear down would always be an option in this case.
My guess from the photos, is that the damage appears less 'explosive' and more 'corrosive'.
An event with a successful outcome, that is often practised in the simulator, but rarely carried out 'in anger'.
Those who scorn the cabin crew for the tears obviously do not understand the ear pain and general disorientation, such an event causes.

[pappabagge]

The flow of destruction..

- now having had the opportunity of perusing the okay-quality close-up I'm seeing what to me is an obvious "from the inside-out" blow, seemingly outwards from the upper portion where the torn-away piece of paneling has flipped upwards, but has been arrested from further upward movement by... what? The stronger resistance of the maindeck flooring/cargo deck ceiling? So following the path of least resistance, the force travels downwards, finds a weakness and exploits this, blowing both downwards and outwards. Notice the inverted "V" of the contact points of the fairing where the screws seen to still be intact, and the paneling has been pulled away what looks like directly outwards 90 degrees, loosing some of its force as it traverses rearwards (ergo more residual honeycombed paneling of the fairing evident in the forward-looking section). Note the complete extremities of the fairing from around halfway down and thereafter are missing, screws an' all.

Then as the outwardly-directed force moves ever further away from the origin of the Event, it slows further, travels downwards, now aided by the decompression effect itself where we see less ripping but more rupturing as a consequence of the transfer of energies over the surfaces and via changing resistance strata.

At least two stringers seem to have been breached and some four longitudinal spars. From an investigatory standpoint I'd give tonight's take-away pizza to see the load plan, load sheet and the cargo manifest for this flight. What would appear to be the "plug" here may be the (arguably adequately) netted and strapped-down flat bed pallet load, and what are the red sacks? Diplomatic Mail? Sure could be.. and way back in the days when this contributor got called out of bed in the middle of the night to examine load irregularities worthy of formal report, no checks whatsoever were made on the contents of DipMail - or Company Mail for that matter - pure conjecture admittedly, but then no stone such be left unturned.. However I'd have more expected to have found either DipMail or CoMail bulk-loaded in Cpt 5.

And I haven't seen that much bent metal since "Her Indoors" came home with my Toyota Previa in a similar condition a few weeks ago.

Funny no-one mentioned Baked Beans yet...

[nicolai]

Those who scorn the cabin crew for the tears obviously do not understand the ear pain and general disorientation, such an event causes.

Indeed, or merely general eye irritation from wind blowing around the cabin or dust in eyes or whatever. The idea that tears automatically mean fear and upset just isn't true. For me, it just means it's summer

[Slats One]

Am I the first to observe that there are no indications of explosive combustion in the photos we have seen so far. Given that most modern luggage is synthetic- nylon/polyester/vynl, plastic , one is forced to note that NONE of the luggage on shown shows any sign of heat, melting, burning, or molecular/ physical change.

The visisble red bag would perhaps show such if it is synthetic and had been subject to combustive force.

Therefore, unless they find chemical residue from a small, low powered combustive event, it is unlikely that this dmage was explosives related. My humble view is that we are likely to eb looking at a possible aleleged corrosion under the galley floor or FOD from ramp vehicles- or a moving LD container.

Of note is that in the internal galley/door 2 right shots, the internal trim on the forward edge of the door psot has been damaged. This may explain a possible initial cabin crew report of a door going or a main door warning light flashing on the flight deck.

Given that the interior door panel/post is showing damage, it is clear that the force of the so far unknown event did go thru the structure adn it is further evidence just how lucky QF are- and how stong Mr Boeing makes a 'plane.

At least it was not the old cargo door issue hey....

And yes, those frames are snapped sharp and randomly in an outward direction - very interesting indeed.

[infrequentflyer789]

Originally Posted by wrobinsyd

look at the skin its all blown out frame broken and torn the the decompression would not do this, have you never seen myth busters?

diff press wont do this

Try looking up Aloha 243 then (fatigue failure plus decompression), or CAL 611.

Mythbusters (I believe from other reports - I don't watch it) disproved that firing a gun in a presurrised aircraft would cause a hole that would then tear it apart. Big deal - others have proved the same in real life (including pilots, recently).

What they didn't prove was that ED following other types of failure, eg. fatigue, doesn't cause significant damage, or indeed tear an aircraft apart. They would be silly to try and prove that, since there are plenty of examples of it actually happening.

[macnan]

Qf Bkk B744

Poof in Boots - the QF B744 that overran at BKK back in 1999 is still indeed in QF colours, reg VH-OJH. From all accounts (2nd hand obviously but widely reported) the cost of the repairs were huge and the hull should have been deemed a write-off on a cost analysis basis, but QF didn't want to lose the 'never written off a jet aircraft' claim so paid $100million (reportly) to fix the aircraft.

[Orestes]

Tears?

I have thankfully never experienced an explosive decompression, but I have read that it is not unusual during such an event for the typical dust and small debris that accumulates for years in the nooks and crannys of a cockpit instrument panel to be suddenly blown up into the pilots' faces and eyes. Maybe they just had dirt in their eyes.

[Gertcha]

Investigating body?

Will the UK AAIB be involved in this as the flight originated in the UK or will the fact that a stopover in HKG was involved override this?

[ABO944]

but I have read that it is not unusual during such an event for the typical dust and small debris that accumulates for years in the nooks and crannys of a cockpit instrument panel to be suddenly blown up into the pilots' faces and eyes

Crikey! If I ever have a explosive decompression on the old bird I fly, I will have to get a spade to dig out the crap from my eye sockets

[2ofsix]

First Look

The lap joint around stringer 40 ish will be my first conclusion. Its too far forward 50 inches of main galley so i doubt it would be corrosion from galley, beside when liquid escape from galleys it tends to corrode the floor frames first. Very unlikely to be the wing to body fairings that let go and ripped the fuse as the damage is too far back for that.
Happy to be corrected but this is my initial assessment from the limited visual data, will know more next week.

cheers

[lomapaseo]

Investigating body?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Will the UK AAIB be involved in this as the flight originated in the UK or will the fact that a stopover in HKG was involved override this?

Yes, but probably not as the Lead.

Most likely Australian or possibly the state where it landed since a lot of investigation needs to be performed in situ.. Who leads it should have no bearing since the UK, Australian and US investigators will probably all particpate with experts and provide recommendations for prevention.

[Phil1980's]

Does anyone have a picture of what a pressure vessal looks like?

I mean the green thing and not the actual whole plane even though that is classed as one

[dj_lethal]

it's better to "EXPEDITE" than to stay longer in higher altitude!
staying too long will be more devastating..!

[ChristiaanJ]

Originally Posted by freshgasflow

I thought these days that passenger oxygen was via chemical generators and not cylinders ... I am NOT an expert ..just asking.

Have you noted the age of the aircraft? That should answer your question.

[Little_Red_Hat]

The 747 oxygen system is fed from central tanks, not chem generators. therefore once activated it can be shut off. Also individual outlets can be utilised for medical cases.

As an ex-flight attendant, I'd also like to point out to the non-crew readers of this thread, that we are trained in decompression to:

1. Fit nearest available oxy mask

2. Secure self in nearest available seat, or, if unable, sit on the floor and hold on to fixed aircraft structure (either wedge self between seats or in other suitable space)

3. Instruct pax to do the same.

Hence reports of cabin crew "sitting on the floor" - they may well have been caught out far from their stations and with no aisle seats vacat (as is usually the case on Long Haul flights!!!) Second also the comments of 'tears' being eye irritation from dust/debris/cold... and possibly also the shock tothe system of inhaling air at -50 degrees!!!