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Big Hole In Qantas Plane

The picture is quite dramatic. I'm glad to see nobody got seriously hurt. Wonder what kind of explosion caused this.

Quote:

From Associated Press:
MANILA, Philippines - A Qantas flight en route to Australia from London made an emergency stop in Manila on Friday after a loud bang punched a hole in the Boeing 747-400’s fuselage, officials and passengers said.

There were no injuries, but some of the 350 passengers vomited after disembarking, said Manila International Airport Authority deputy manager for operations Octavio Lina.

In a statement from Sydney, Qantas confirmed the hole in its fuselage and said it was being inspected by engineers.

Lina said the cabin’s floor gave way, exposing some of the cargo beneath and part of the ceiling collapsed.

“There is a big hole on the right side near the wing,” he said, adding it was 2.5 to 3 yards in diameter.

Explosion described
Passengers who talked to the media at the airport described hearing an explosion and then oxygen masks were released.

“One hour into the flight there was a big bang then the plane started going down,” passenger Marina Scaffidi, 39, from Melbourne, told The Associated Press by phone from Manila airport. “There was wind swirling around the plane and some condensation.”

She said the hole extended from the cargo hold into the passenger cabin.

“The plane kept going down not too fast, but it was descending,” Scaffidi said, adding the jetliner was over the South China Sea when the staff informed passengers they were diverting to Manila.

“No one was very hysterical,” she said.

The passengers will be given hotel accommodation while the aircraft is being repaired, said Alfonso Cusi, the airport’s general manager.

'Big hole' in plane prompts Manila stop - News - MSNBC.com

Odd location, any 747 drivers speculate on this?

Close-up shots here but part of a foreign post so no text (to speak of). 27C in Oslo by the way.

Qantas-fly måtte nødlande i Manila - Nyheter - Utenriks - Aftenposten.no

"Textbook" job well done by the QF Crew though.

Been following this for the last several hours. Best Pax comment so far; "That hole wasn't there when we left"

I hate to say it.....

The fairing is fiberglass, so no surprise it is gone. If you look at the aluminum skin at the edge of the hole (ie, part of the pressure vessel), it is all bent outwards.

If this were a fatigue crack, I would expect parts of the skin to be bent that way, but not all of it.

I hate to say it, but it looks like a bomb to me. Having seen videos of bomb-tests on airplanes before, I would say, if this was a bomb, the only thing that saved them was luck in where the bomb was located in the baggage hold: the hole is just forward of the center-wing box, and therefore, makes that immediate area of the fuselage one of the strongest structural parts of the fuselage.

If not a bomb per se, then something pressurized (scuba tank, medical oxygen, spare tire) may have blown with less force than a bomb.

Leaving the "bomb" theory to one side at the moment, this will only serve to tarnish QF's reputation at home, even more than it already is.

They've laid off a lot of their Mechs in SYD and farmed out all the heavy checks, that used to be done in house, to the cheapest Asian bidder. If this turns out to be a fatigue/maintenance issue, a lot of people will be saying "I told you so"!!

Good job by the crew. If I got out and saw that, I think I'd be kissing the ground and heading for the nearest bar............

FWDitON.com > View > Qantas Airlines

I thought that Quantas had great maintinence...just a little something to lighten the mood!:eek:

Media lies again

I was just downstairs looking at it on the news. It's so obvious the media is just lying. They were saying the plane "dropped" 20,000 feet "in seconds" and that it was a miracle that the pilots could still control the plane and that passengers could have been sucked out. (that of course is most likely impossible. If you look at the pics the hole seems well below the floor of the main cabin).

And it still pi$$es me off how they never identify these "aviation experts". They parade out a guy with an ugly tie and sport coat and say "this is an aviation expert". Ok, what is he? A pilot, an aerospace engineer, etc?

They had a good aviation expert on ABC news. He said it was not a big deal and that the plane did not "drop 20,000 ft out of the sky" but that it was supposed to happen as we all know.

Also I hate how everyone talks about the pilot, as in one. There are pilots (2).
ABC News asked the expert how hard it is to land the plane with the hole, the expert was like "Not hard at all, it did not affect any of the flight controls."

I hate the media and their reports on aviation

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Juice (Post 433362)

Like how the media this morning all portrayed the Dash 8 from Piedmont landing with a failed engine a bigger deal than was neccessary?