Qantas airplane drops 20,000 feet - and lands safely!
Posted by Carlos C. on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 7:26 am
A Qantas flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne made an emergency landing in the Philippines on Friday after a hole appeared in the fuselage and the cabin lost pressure suddenly.
“There was an almighty crack,” one passenger said. “We dropped a bit in the air, but other than that it was fine.”
“There was a big bang,” said another. “I knew there was a hole somewhere, but I didn’t know what was going on.”
Marina Scaffidi, 39, from Melbourne, told The Associated Press: “There was wind swirling around the plane and some condensation.”
She said a hole extended from the cargo hold into the passenger cabin.
Michael Rahill, 57, an architect from Melbourne, told AP the bang sounded “like a tire exploding, but more violently.”
Images of the Boeing 747-400 after it landed showed a large hole where the leading edge of the wing attaches to the fuselage.
The flight originated in London. It was diverted to Manila International Airport, where it landed around 11:15 a.m. (11:15 p.m. ET Thursday.)
There were no reports of injuries among the 346 passengers and 19 crew, the airline said in a statement. Oxygen masks were deployed during the emergency.
Passengers said their ears popped because of the plane’s rapid descent to a lower altitude.
Some passengers vomited after disembarking, Manila International Airport Authority deputy manager for operations Octavio Lina told AP.
The Australian Transportation Safety Bureau and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority have been notified and plan to investigate, according to Geoff Dixon, Qantas CEO.
Photo Courtesy Fox News.com
There is more dramatic video of the plane flight.
As soon as it’s available, Scoop This will post it!
(2 Ratings)
Filed Under: = BREAKING NEWS =
July 25th, 2008 at 9:21 am
“Almighty crack”…how come we don’t talk like that heh…
Reminds me of once, in high school, flying alone to Florida from JFK during a freak April snowstorm. After a 12 hour delay and airport closing and scurrying to get luggage off one plane and onto another, and even getting on another plane, my 4pm flight to Sarasota finally took off at 2am…to Orlando (I figured I’d get to Sarasota somehow…just wanted to go!) our plane dropped 10,000 feet, the “dings” went off, the oxygen masks dropped…I tell ya, it’s not like the movies when everyone starts screaming, it was dead silent as we all looked around at each other, thinking we’d be dead in a few minutes. But luckily, we made it.