Quantas 747 in Emergency Landing

[Nigel H-J]

Could well have been a tragedy, thank goodness they
all got down safely.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 524733.stm

Nigel.

[Garry Russell]

There was a United 747 that landed ..I think it was in Hawaii after a prt of the fuse blew away.

Fortunately they can withstand this sort of thing without total break up.

The other well known incident was the Aloha 737 that lost a large part of the forward upper fuse. Must be terrifying for those on board.

Garry

[DispatchDragon]

Garry

The United 747 lost its complete forward cargo door . Loking at the photo it looks like the carbon fiber faiting on the wing root parted
company

Leif

[Trev Clark]

I love the fact that someone actually video recorded the whole thing! I wonder if anyone was tempted to eat between breaths from the mask!

I have experienced a catastrophic loss of cabin pressure (the relief valve motored fully open of it's own accord at 23,000ft :o ) in a C130 and it is quite dramatic. Great to see all is well with the crew and passengers here though.

[petermcleland]

Here is quite a good view of the blown out panel:-

[forthbridge]

I feel sorry for the Pax who still have a long flight ahead of them to get home. Not the best stopover to have on a trip to Oz :o

My backside would be producing diamonds in industrial quantities.....

[Chris Trott]

Looks to me like the inner panel failed and that took apart the forward edge of the wing-body fairing.

I have to wonder if this was mechanical or explosive. I doubt there was any sort of terrorist attack, but it wouldn't surprise me if somehow a firecracker or some other small device (or potentially explosive compound) got aboard and just happened to go off from the pressure and temperature change. It's happened in the past on cargo aircraft. The other possibility I see immediately is a damaged skin that gave way under pressurization. Not impossible by any margin as I know how rough some of the rampies can be.

[jonesey2k]

I think this aeroplane was fitted with a new interior not long ago and some corrosion was spotted during the work. Wonder if it has anything to do with it.

[Chris Trott]

Possible. The picture isn't large enough to see the edges of the break. I don't know if it would make a failure that large though since they have rip stops that are supposed to keep a failure that large from happening.

[Kevin Farnell]

An expert on the BBC news, stated that it looked like the seam had 'unzipped' along the rivet line (hinting at a fatigue failure). If you look closely, the leading edge of the hole is bent forward. Is de-pressurisation sufficient to do this, of is more force needed?

Kevin