The preliminary occurrence report into the Qantas 747 (VH-OJK) that suffered an explosive depressurisation 475 km northwest of Manila has been released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and with it, more images of the oxygen cylinders that allegedly caused the incident.
From the ATSB report:
“After clearing the baggage and cargo from the forward aircraft hold, it was evident that one passenger oxygen cylinder (number-4 from a bank of seven cylinders along the right side of the cargo hold) had sustained a sudden failure and forceful discharge of its pressurised contents into the aircraft hold, rupturing the fuselage in the vicinity of the wing-fuselage leading edge fairing. The cylinder had been propelled upward by the force of the discharge, puncturing the cabin floor and entering the cabin adjacent to the second main cabin door. The cylinder had subsequently impacted the door frame, door handle and overhead panelling, before falling to the cabin floor and exiting the aircraft through the ruptured fuselage.“
You can download the occurrence report from the ATSB website here (PDF 2.3MB) or here.
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Following is a video of a rapid descent flown by 777 Emirates crew from one of their excellent internal training videos. The nature of the QF’s incident was different since the decompression was explosive – meaning that more consideration needed to be made to the structural integrity of the airframe and the airspeed flown in the descent. Note that the crew did in the video do not action the first two recall items from the Boeing 747 checklist, which is to don oxygen masks and establish crew communication. This was likely omitted for video production purposes.
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About Marty
That’s a good post. The wife of the pilot John Bartels posted this on another blog/news site.
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You might not recall that my husband was ex-RAN A4. He now flies 747-400. He had the explosive decompression yesterday.
Fun day!
I can give your readers some facts that are solid:
No engines were shut down.
Aeroplane’s controls were unaffected.
Some computer functions and electrics were affected – all 3 ILS shut down and the Capt’s FMC. Antiskid warning came on.
The R2 door alarm activated.
Capt inititated controlled descent from 29K to 10K, which took about 4 mins. Mayday was called (John never ever thought he would have to declare a mayday in his entire career!)
After levelling off, fuel dump of 50 tons was commenced, and plane landed afterwards normally, but used all available runway. Engine #3 was shut down first, then 3 others after and plane was towed to terminal. Passengers disembarked normally via aerobridge.
John praised crew and passengers, who all rose to the occasion.
I have a few pics I can share if you’d like. Let me know, and if any other q’s
Ozwitch
There was yet ANOTHER Qantas incident yesterday when a 737 bound for Melbourne returned to Adelaide shortly after takeoff. I understand that QF is a good airline but the ongong incidents they’re experiencing paints a far different picture.
I want to know why Peter Gibson (CASA’s corporate communication manager) was conducting a press conference and appearing on Aussie TV on behalf of Qantas? It just goes to show that Qantas can do no wrong and that they have the CASA staff in their pocket. They could have a crash killing 360 people and this clown would appear on TV talking about it as a minor mishap.
Good point Brian. I just read this quote on news.com.au from your friend Peter Jackson:
“Certainly CASA is not a partner in aviation safety, that would be entirely inappropriate obviously. We’re at arms’ length from Qantas and the major airlines.”
This clearly isn’t true. Over the last week I’ve also seen CASA do heaps of PR for Qantas, so tell me that is an ‘arms length’.
I’m glad you have remained critical of Qantas Marty and continue commenting on their rather horid record of maintenance.
CASA issued a media release today which says the following:
http://www.casa.gov.au/media/2008/08-09-01a.htm
“CASA has looked carefully at the Qantas maintenance systems and performance and uncovered signs of emerging problems,” Mr Quinn says.
“The review found maintenance performance within Qantas is showing some adverse trends and is now below the airline’s own benchmarks.
I see a number of issues with these comments. First, what are the signs of emerging problems? Second, what are the adverse trends and what are the airline’s own benchmarks? I hope it’s not too little too late for the big Q.
I think the transcript from CASA will answer a few of your questions:
http://www.casa.gov.au/media/2008/08-09-01transcript.htm