Transportation Industry

Company Watch - Qantas Airways

AirGuide Business, Sept 8, 2008

Sep 7, 2008

An exploding oxygen cylinder in a Qantas Airways Boeing 747-400 bellyhold became a projectile that blasted up through the galley floor, hit a main door so hard it distorted it, then impacted the galley ceiling before falling back through the floor and dropping out of a hole the explosion had created in the aircraft's fuselage. This detail has emerged from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau preliminary factual report on the 25 July incident, which has also revealed that the cylinder severed some of the co-pilot's control runs. "Both right-side first officer's aileron control cables routed along the right side of the fuselage above the passenger oxygen cylinders had been fractured during the rupture event," it says. The 747 departed Hong Kong for Melbourne, Australia and it was at 29,000ft (8,850m) when the explosion took place, causing cabin decompression. The report notes the oxygen masks deployed and the flightcrew began an emergency descent to 10,000ft before diverting to Manila airport in the Philippines. Sep 2, 2008

Australian Transport Safety Bureau released a preliminary report on its investigation of last month's Qantas 747-400 decompression and fuselage hole incident, saying it is "evident that one passenger oxygen cylinder had sustained a sudden failure and forceful discharge of its pressurized contents into the [forward] aircraft hold, rupturing the fuselage in the vicinity of the wing-fuselage leading edge fairing." It added, "The cylinder had been propelled upward by the force of the discharge, puncturing the cabin floor and entering the cabin adjacent to the second main cabin door. The cylinder had subsequently impacted the door frame, door handle and overhead paneling, before falling to the cabin floor and exiting the aircraft through the ruptured fuselage." ATSB said the aircraft made an "uneventful visual approach and landing" at Manila, to which it had been diverted, and that safety did not appear to be compromised despite the cylinder explosion. Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon said the airline completed an inspection of the oxygen systems across its 747-400 fleet on Aug. 1, "which confirmed there were no safety issues." He also said the 747-400 that landed in Manila with a hole in its fuselage "was repairable at a cost of less than A$10 million ($8.6 million) and will be back in service in November 2008." Sep 1, 2008

Qantas Airways is considering ordering Boeing 777-300ER long-range widebody twinjets because it has concluded that it will need a second type to operate alongside Airbus A380s to fully replace its fleet of aging Boeing 747-400s. The Oneworld carrier's chief executive Geoff Dixon says the airline is in discussions with Airbus and Boeing on acquiring additional long-haul aircraft to replace its 747-400s. Qantas operates 30 747-400s and has 20 A380s on order, the first of which is due to be delivered in September. The airline says no decision has been made on which type of aircraft will be acquired and no proposals have been put to the board. In 2006 Qantas evaluated the ultra-long-range 777-200LR, but decided against placing an order. Last year the carrier called on Boeing to develop a longer-range 787. If Qantas adds 777-300ERs it could facilitate the launch of more services from Australia to continental Europe. The airline routes most of its Europe-bound traffic through London Heathrow. Sep 1, 2008

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