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Qantas flight makes emergency landing in Manila (Explosion)
Australian TV is now reporting this as a midair explosion.QANTAS passengers have told of a terrifying mid-air emergency that left a gaping hole in the side of a plane, forcing an emergency landing in Manila. The Qantas Boeing 747, en route from London to Melbourne, via Hong Kong, landed safely today and a "gigantic" hole was discovered in the belly of the plane, near the wing. Some of the passengers on board told of debris flying through the depressurised cabin, and oxygen masks dropping from the ceiling. Some said the plane had plunged about 20,000 feet after a door "popped". "There was a terrific boom and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into first (class) and the oxygen masks dropped down," Melbourne woman Dr June Kane told ABC Radio. "I'm looking at the plane now and ... just forward of the wing, there's a gaping hole from the wing to the underbody," she said, adding that baggage was hanging out. "It was absolutely terrifying, but I have to say everyone was very calm." Qantas tonight said it had arranged for a replacement plane to fly to Manila to collect the 346 uninjured passengers and 19 crew and fly them immediately back to Melbourne. The replacement Boeing 747 was expected to leave the Philippines capital shortly after 11pm local time (0100 AEST Saturday), to arrive in Melbourne tomorrow morning (AEST). Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said the flight had "a hole in its fuselage" and was being inspected. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau today said it was sending four investigators to Manila to inspect the plane. "At approximately 29,000 feet, the crew were forced to conduct an emergency descent after a section of the fuselage separated and resulted in a rapid decompression of the cabin," the bureau said. The crew brought the plane down to 10,000 feet and requested an emergency landing in Manila, where emergency crews were on hand to watch it come in. Mr Dixon said the airline was also sending its engineers to Manila. Manila airport operations officer Ding Lima told local radio the plane lost cabin pressure shortly after takeoff from Hong Kong and the pilot radioed for an emergency landing. "Upon disembarkation, there were some passengers who vomited. You can see in their faces that they were really scared," he said. During the emergency part of the plane's flooring gave way, exposing some of the cargo in the hold, he said. Part of the ceiling also collapsed. Another passenger Brendan McClements, the chief executive of the Victorian Major Events Company, described hearing a big bang as the plane flew out of Hong Kong. "There was a sort of rapid expulsion of wind. It went out of the plane, the air got sucked out, the oxygen masks dropped down and we put them on," he said from Manila. "Where I was sitting wasn't ideal, by no means ideal. "We landed about an hour or so ago, and there was a very large hole that wasn't there when we took off in Hong Kong." Mr McClements praised Qantas staff for keeping passengers calm. "The crew were terrific, they did a great job," he said. "Everyone gave them a round of applause as we landed." British man Phil Rescall said he and other passengers realised how lucky they were when they saw the size of the hole in the plane's underbelly just in front of the right wing. "You see the hole and you realise we were very lucky," he said. "Some people were crying, some people were pretty shaken when they saw the hole." Another English passenger, Robin McGeechan, 42, said that despite the bang there was little panic. "We were told a door had popped. We only realised that there was a great big hole in the plane after we landed," McGeechan said. Posted by: phil_b 2008-07-25 |
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