Hole forces Qantas plane to land

EMERGENCY LANDING. Australian pilot Captain John Francis Barters (R) looks at the damage to a Qantas Airways plane after it made an emergency landing. The plane landed after plunging thousands of feet and losing cabin pressure during a flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne.

Passengers on a Qantas jumbo jet bound for Melbourne told how the plane plunged 6,000 meters and debris flew through the cabin in an "absolutely terrifying" mid-flight ordeal Friday. The Qantas Boeing 747-400 plane, carrying 346 passengers and 19 crew, made an emergency landing in the Philippine capital Manila after a rupture in its fuselage.

Stunned passengers reported how the jumbo, which had taken off from London and made a stopover in Hong Kong, plunged nearly 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) in what one said was an "absolutely terrifying" ordeal.

• Planes are pressurised as cruising altitudes are freezing and lack sufficient oxygen to breathe
• Hole causes decompression, rapidly reducing air pressure and risking exposure
• Oxygen masks are deployed and pilot makes emergency descent to breathable altitude

Though a loud bang was heard and wind rushed into the plane, passengers remained calm, donning oxygen masks as the pilot made the emergency descent.

An urgent investigation is underway into what punched a hole of about three meters in diameter into the fuselage near the right wing.

Qantas chief executive officer Geoff Dixon said initial inspections showed the aircraft had sustained a hole in its fuselage, and it was being inspected by engineers.
He said the flight crew performed emergency procedures after oxygen masks were deployed and there were no reports of any injuries.

Qantas Airways boasts of its safety record, having never lost a jet to an accident. In the 1988 film "Rain Man," an autistic character played by Dustin Hoffman insists on flying with the airline precisely for that reason.

Qantas flight QF30, which took off from Hong Kong at 9:00 a.m. (0100 GMT), had been due to arrive in Melbourne at 1145 GMT, according to the Qantas website. June Kane, a passenger on that flight said the problem appeared to centre on the baggage compartment of the plane.

Qantas said a replacement plane would collect the passengers and crew later Friday and fly them overnight to Melbourne.

Safely off the plane, some passengers exchanged high fives while another smoked a cigarette.