Qantas 747-400 In Emergency Landing
July 25th, 2008
Emergencies of all types in the air attract major headlines and on the day marking the eighth anniversary of the Concorde crash at Gonesse, France, a Qantas Airways Boeing 747-400 en-route from Hong Kong to Melbourne (QF30) diverted to Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport after a large portion of the fuselage near the wing root/body fairing “popped” off while oxygen masks deployed in the cabin as the airplane lost pressure.
Image courtesy of the BBC/AP
Image courtesy of CNN/Manila Airport
The story will no doubt be unfolding in the coming days, however, the images are pretty dramatic and it’s fortunate that a potentially bigger catastophe has been avoided.
Image courtesy of ninemsn
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has classified the incident as serious and investigations have already begun into finding the cause.
Excerpt from the BBC:
Passenger Olivia Lucas told the BBC said everyone was “pretty scared for a few moments”.
“Then everyone focused on getting their oxygen masks on,” she said. “Everyone was calm and quiet and there was notable relief when we landed. Everyone applauded the pilot.”
Image courtesy of SMH
“We are very lucky we landed safely and no-one was hurt.”
The airplane involved is VH-OJK, MSN 25067. The Sydney Morning Herald has some more dramatic images here.
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Entry Filed under: Aeroplane, Aerospace, Air Transport, Air Travel, Airlines, Airplane, Airport, Boeing, Boeing 747-400, Qantas
3 Comments Add your own
1. Mike M | July 25th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
First of all, the wing fairings are NOT part of the pressurized structure. Take a close look at the main fuselage that continues along past where the front edge of the fairing used to be. If you were to take off the fairing of an unafflicted aircraft all you would see is fuselage - not a hole into the baggage hold. I think that a bomb did go off right there. The loss of the fairing was just incidental because the bomb location happened to be right there. As I said, the fairing holds no pressure and isn’t held on in a manner to do that. So it suddenly saw pressure from the combination of the bomb blast and the released cabin pressure and simply blew off - mostly intact would be my guess, (they’re fiberglass too I think?). Another clue is the RIPPED fueslage metal peeled outward. Sure, a dramatic structural failure is going to produce a hole but the ~10 psi pressure isn’t enough to tear the skin at all those locations. 1000 to one odds this WAS a terrorist attack. Qantas had had a bomb scare only a week ago that they said was a hoax - maybe that wasn’t such a hoax after all.
2. Ward | July 27th, 2008 at 4:49 am
I see no evidence of a bomb. Evidence of bomb wold include fragmentation and burns, none of which appear to be present. It will be easy for investigators to rule out a bomb if no explosive residues are found on the aircraft or the baggage. I say structureal failure.
3. Jeff | July 29th, 2008 at 12:40 am
The pressure inside a 747 can MOST DEFINITELY do heavy damage when suddenly released. JAL flight 123 lost most of its tail and Dutch rolled for 15-20 minutes before finally doing a terminal nosedive back in 1985. The aft pressure bulkhead ruptured at the back of the cabin. Since this damage is just a few feet (less than 10) forward of the center fuel tank, it must have been a pretty crappy bomb not to rupture that! The oxygen tank scenario sounds plausible, followed by structural failure due to crack or corrosion. I spent 11 1/2 years working on 747’s. Boeing builds them pretty solid.
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