(Qantas) Jet explosion took out crucial instruments

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC/AP

CANBERRA, Australia - A packed Qantas jetliner lost the use of crucial flight instruments after an explosion aboard the aircraft last week blasted a large hole in its fuselage, an air safety investigator said Wednesday.

The explosion last Friday during a flight from London to Melbourne forced the pilots of the Boeing 747 to rapidly descend thousands of feet and make an emergency landing in the Philippines. No one was injured in the blast or during the descent.

Investigators have found that the jet’s three landing instrument systems and its antiskid system were not working when they arrived in Manila, said Julian Walsh, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s director of aviation safety.

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Walsh said the pilots did not use the flight instruments to land the plane. If the pilots were not able to land under so-called visual flight rules, he said, they had other navigation systems that they could have used.

But another bureau investigator, Ian Brokenshire, told The Associated Press later that the failed instruments would have made landing “extremely difficult” if conditions over Manila had been cloudy or foggy.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25927052/

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Story also says the explosion blew shrapnel in to the ceiling of the passenger cabin and sheared off a door handle. Wow. I'd say the passengers and Qantas sure were lucky!

[Parche]

1. 747-400

Did you see the hole near the wing......it was huge

I dont know how they landed at MNL.......

:hi:

[Xipe Totec]

2. Kudos to the flight crew! nt

[cufford]

3. I'll second that...

Anytime a flight crew can manage a potentially catastrophic emergency and land the plane safely, they deserve praise.

They train relentlessly to handle a whole laundry list of emergencies like this - including fire, a loss of instruments, engines, etc. - but doing it in real life rather than the simulator is clearly a different situation.

It reminds me of those remarkable pilots who managed to get that United DC-10 on the runway in South Dakota a few decades ago. With virtually no working flight controls, they essentially used engine thrust alone to steer the plane to the airport, line it up with the runway, and save many lives, despite careening off the runway after touchdown due to no real control of the aircraft.

Amazing, how skilled many professional pilots are.

[Xipe Totec]

4. I remember that United flight

I still get a lump in my throat just thinking about it.

[bdab1973]

5. The United Airlines case...

...was in Iowa...Souix City, IA to be exact. Uncontained engine failure took out hydraulic lines to the flight controls.