Note that this was a post from my blog at an older location: Posted July 26 2008
Yes, two blog entries about Qantas in a row! Guess what happened this time! (I’m sure most of you know now, but still) A Qantas flight from London to Melbourne with a stop-over in Hong Kong had to make an emergency landing in the Philippines at Manila’s Airport. Qantas Flight 30 took off from Hong Kong heading for Melbourne when at cruising altitude, passengers heard a loud bang and part of the ceiling and floor near the right wing collapsed. The pilots had to make an emergency decent from 30000 feet down to 10000 feet as a result of the cabin depressurising. The pilots managed to land the plane without problems at Manila.
Once the passengers and crew were able to disembark the Boeing 747-400 (named “City of Newcastle”), they saw exactly what had happened to their aircraft. A hole approximately 2 metres wide and 4 metres in length located near the right wing (at the fairing) is believed to be the cause of the collapse of the floors and the rapid decompression. The cause of the hole is so far unknown. Qantas has promised to investigate the cause, along with the Australian and US Transportation Safety Bureaus, the Federal Aviation Authority and representatives from Boeing. Investigators have discovered what they believe to be corrosion damage, thus it is assumed that the cause was not a bomb, and not metal fatigue as the fairing is not normally prone to metal fatigue.
Well, that’s another incident from Qantas, and I am still yet amazed as to how Qantas hasn’t lost a jet yet! They have had only one other “major” incident though, and that was Qantas Flight 1, another Boeing 747-400 which was en-route from Sydney to London with a stop over in Bangkok, Thailand. When the plane touched down on the Runway in Bangkok, weather conditions were terrible with heavy rain and low visibility. The plane overshot the runway, and crash landed in a nearby golf course. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service. That event occurred in September 1999.
In each of the incidents, both aircraft were repairable and all the crew and passengers survived. Although some people believe that the aircraft involved in the 1999 incident should have been written off and not returned to service. There are also a growing number of problems found with Qantas’ aircraft and more incidents with them as well. Qantas has been skimping down on maintenance and, as in my previous post, have been/are sacking maintenance engineers to “save operating costs due to rising fuel prices”. It should be interesting as to when Qantas has another major incident.
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