and right in front of the wing root...
Posted on 07/25/2008 4:15:45 PM PDT by naturalman1975
DEBRIS flew past passengers as air was sucked out of an ageing Melbourne-bound Qantas jumbo jet after a mid-air explosion ripped a gaping hole in its fuselage and plunged the plane into a 20,000ft emergency descent.
Almost 350 mostly Australian travellers on QF30 from London heard an "almighty bang" yesterday morning and feared a mid-air collision as a rush of wind coursed through the cabin and oxygen masks fell from the ceiling of the Boeing 747-400.
"There was a terrific boom, and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into first (class) and the oxygen masks dropped down," Melbourne doctor June Kane said of the ordeal. "It was absolutely terrifying, but I have to say everyone was very calm."
The plane, which was flying at about 29,000ft over the South China Sea, was diverted to Manila and landed safely at about 11.15am, local time, with no reports of injuries to the 346 passengers and 19 crew, although many were severely shaken.
Manila airport operations officer Ding Lima said the plane lost cabin pressure and the pilot radioed for an emergency landing. "Upon disembarkation, there were some passengers who vomited," he said.
"You can see in their faces that they were really scared."
As Qantas and air safety authorities last night were scratching their heads over the cause of the incident, passengers described the damage to the plane as a "gaping hole from the wing to the underbody".
"It's about two metres by four metres and there's baggage hanging out so you assume that there's a few bags that may have gone missing," Dr Kane said.
Qantas Flight 30 was about 320km out of Manila en route to Melbourne from Hong Kong when the drama began yesterday morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Could it be........ Muslims? (Satan)
“Ageing?” They said this morning on FOX news that the plane was brand new. That pesky media can’t get anything right.
Wood?..
“Ageing?” They said this morning on FOX news that the plane was brand new. That pesky media can’t get anything right.
The article said the plane was 17 years old.
I guess that is kind of new when it comes to airplanes.
related:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051029/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2051075/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2051141/posts
and right in front of the wing root...
Man, the 747 is a workhorse! I think it might not be good to be missing your suitcase in that flight. Someones looks like it went bang.
Remember the movie “Rain Man”?
Qantas has still upheld it’s record of no fatalities on a jet.
The news version I heard stated that the passengers could see the luggage below through the hole in the floor. This means the explosion came from the same location as the luggage. The announcer was very quick to saw “It was not terror related!” before any investigation could have possibly looked into why the luggage bay went BOOM. Amazing.
Probably bits of the floorboards... they are made of a lightweight honeycomb material that is brownish-yellow in color. Could be mistaken for "wood" by a PAX.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR NEWEST MEMBERS!!
Centerline fuel tank without a doubt. </ sarcasm>
Maybe somebody managed to smuggle more than 3 oz of mouthwash onto the flight
Seriously, this sounds and looks a lot like like the multi-simultaneous airliner bombing scenario, precursor to 9-11, that good ol’ Khalid Sheik Muhammed the man helped to plan, back in the early 1990’s - Operation Bojinka
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Airlines_Flight_434
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oplan_Bojinka
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E0DE1E39F930A2575BC0A964948260
Great, another way for the Airlines to lose our luggage. ;-)
Seriously, glad things worked out … quick thinking by the pilots … reflects great training.
Reflects not only great crew training and composure
... but also a great aircraft !
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