No joking this time. Qantas 7474 emergency descent..
 

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Hole forces Qantas plane to land :notworthy


Good job the crew. Tough old birds those 747's! :luxhello:

It would focus the mind somewhat ;)

Flightman, A new username perhaps? My I suggest Clairvoyant? ;)

dont believe you this time

:eek2: Kin Ell anyone feel a draft in here:D well done to all the crew, all I can say is my Ar$e would have been keeping up with the engines:D
Cheers
Colin

How many will sue !!

I know.Aren't humans complete ar**s nowadays.As if being alive isn't good enough.

Well done pilots (who must have been thinking 'please stay on wing,please stay on')

How strange!

Bit of excitement ending in a safe landing is always nice to see :D

Flightman, do you think the increase in aviation fuel costs has led any airlines to compromise on safety, or are aircraft checks still as rigorous as ever?

Just been reading this on Sky News, plunging 20,000 feet must have been a bit of a shock. Every time I read of panic on an airplane I can't help but think of the panicking scene in the film Airplane. Imagine having to get back on another plane to finish your journey after that. I was going to say i'd get a boat the rest of the way but with the Phillipines record on ferries actually i'd rather get back on a plane!

wonder if its terroist related?

Looks like bird strike damage to me.

Scary stuff! :eek: Glad the pilots managed to get it down safely! :notworthy

Looks like something has gone bang in the Luggage holdall, could have been deliberate.

All I'll say is that I was offered QF to Melbourne on a business trip earlier this year. I politely declined and went BA via Sydney instead.

To those people reading reports of "plunging 20,000ft " It's media bullsh!t.

The aircraft was a 30,000ft and breathable air is around 10,000ft. So it rapidly descended ( not plunged ) under the pilots control to where it was safe for passengers to remove the masks. A guy on Radio 5 earlier who was on the flight said " Well, you could tell we were descending, but nothing more than on a normal flight "

Like I said, media bullshi!t. :mad:

Yeah but on heresay or what you know for a fact?

If it was a 747C variant it will already be within the Ageing Airplane Program, which was a Boeing initiative to increase the level of inspections regarding the structural integrity of older aircraft.

The 747 itself is indeed a tough old bird however I would place emphasis on the "old" within that statement..... ;)

What I know, and what I'll say here are two different things. I did fly, quite happily I'll add, QF on 4 separate flights whilst in OZ.

You can draw your own conclusions. :thumb:

I hate riddles :mad: Spit it out man :D

What exactly is it you do flightman, you appear to have a fantastic knowledge of airplanes.

I doubt a birdstrike could happen at 30000+ft and it would have to be a bloody big bird to cause 2.5-3m of damage. I'm no expert though.

chop :)

he is a plane spotter

I believe the a/c was VH-OJH. First flight was 1990 so its not an old aircraft.

Its also the same a/c that ran off the runway in Bangkok in 1999.

I thought it was VH-OJK? It has just come out of maintenance in Australia where it had serious corrosion problems found during an IFE upgrade.

For a second I thought it was yet "another" 747 cargo door failure. On closer inspection the door is perfectly intact.

Is there a vent located around there on the underside?

I'd be astonished it it was as bird strike. Normally there is blood and remnants splattered across the area hit, so I doubt it very much. 30,000ft is just too high.

I'd guess ( and it is just a guess ) it's an issue with the cargo door. Something similar happened to a UA 747 out of LAX in 1989. IIRC Accident Investigation did a programme on it. Same sort of scenario. A "bang/thump" loss of cabin pressure. Rapid decent to a safe landing. I think in that incident debris meant two engines were shutdown. That didn't happen in this case.

And as Jacko's mate knows, I don't possess one a/c registration of any note!

Kiwi, yes, your spot on. I've just spoken to a QF contact at LHR and it's OJK.

First flew 1991 and has just had an overhaul. :thumb:

OK, nothing to do with the cargo door. :eek2: What do you think the pilot is thinking? "SHEEEET" springs to mind.

http://images.theage.com.au/2008/07/...ntas-620x0.jpg

...are they bags I can see in the hole? I thought they all went inside baggage containers..... :confused:

I know feck all about planes, but i'm surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen a lot more regularly on something that moves along at 500mph+

There isn't much between you and the outside either....
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/d...3/IM0003-a.jpg