A jumbo jet bound for Melbourne, Australia, was forced to make an emergency landing in the Philippines yesterday after a massive hole opened up in the side of the aircraft at 29,000 feet.
Wind whipped through the plane during its horrifying descent, but miraculously there were no injuries and passengers did not report anything worse than a few cases of nausea.
“One hour into the flight there was a big bang, then the plane started going down,” passenger Marina Scaffidi, 39, told The Associated Press. The Daily Telegraph of Australia reported that corrosion in the Qantas aircraft was discovered during an overhaul on the plane last March, but the story did not specify if that was the cause of the 9-foot hole in the Boeing 747.
“From the pictures that we’ve seen out of Manila during the course of the day, it would seem that one of the panels to the outer skin of the aircraft has literally come away from the rest of the fuselage,” said Chris Yates, an aviation expert at Jane’s Aviation.
Flight QF 30 departed from London and made a stop in Hong Kong.
Just minutes after being served a meal, passengers reported hearing an explosion and debris being sucked out of the hole – which developed at the base of one of the wings – as the oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling.
The pilots informed the 346 passengers they would be diverting to Manila and swiftly brought the plane down to 10,000 feet where the air is breathable. “The plane kept going down, not too fast, but it was descending,” Scaffidi said. “No one was very hysterical.”
June Kane, of Melbourne, told Australia’s ABC radio, “It was absolutely terrifying, but I have to say everyone was very calm.”
Video footage shot on a passenger’s cellphone showed travelers keeping cool in the face of the terrifying ordeal.
A baby’s cries rang out as the airline staff walked through the cabin to keep the passengers calm while their meals shook on their trays.
When the plane landed, the travelers burst into applause.
Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdier said the cause of the hole had not been determined, but that the company and the National Transportation Safety Board would conduct an investigation.
“We are dispatching four personnel from Boeing, an investigator and three engineers,” she said.
Geoff Dixon, the chief executive officer of Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, added, “This was a highly unusual situation and our crew responded with the professionalism that Qantas is known for.” With Post Wire Services