The Day we Thought a Qantas A380 Crashed

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I received a disturbing phone call from a friend only a few hours ago who had caught the tail end of a news bulletin suggesting that Qantas debris had washed up onto a Beach in Batam. Traditional news services failed me, so I turned to the one place that offers immediate information – Twitter. As [...]

Qantas QF74 Uncontained Engine Failure – Video & Pics

A Qantas Boeing 747-400, registration VH-OJP performing flight QF-74 (departing Aug 30th) from San Francisco to Sydney with 212 passengers and 19 crew, was climbing through FL250 about 20 minutes into their flight when the number 4 engine (an RB211) suffered an uncontained failure. It caused a large hole into the outer engine cowling near [...]

Crew Smoking Dope on a Plane

Forget smoking cigarettes on an aircraft! This video shows what appears to be a Russian pilot and cabin crew smoking marijuana on board an airliner. Despite the fact I’ve seen reports of this as a freight aircraft – like that would make any difference – there are cabin crew, suggesting a passenger service – despite [...]

Interview with Captain Eric Moody

I had the opportunity to talk to Eric Moody in the company of Karlene, Ken and Adam yesterday as part of a new aviation podcast at FlightPodcast.com that we’re in the final stages of releasing. Eric is most famous for experiencing a 4-engine failure in a British Airways Boeing 747 as a result of volcanic [...]

Will a 747 jetblast blow over a car, bus or aircraft?

There has been a United Airlines video in circulation for some time that shows a car getting blown off the road it’s driving on due to the jetblast of a stationary aircraft. Users of aviation forums the world over, armchair enthusiasts and pilots from all walks of life have long debated the realism of such [...]

QF30 ATSB report & rapid descent video

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 [...]