MANILA, Saturday (AFP) - Air safety investigators were today searching for clues as to what caused a dramatic mid-air rupture which left a gaping hole in the fuselage of a Qantas plane carrying more than 300 passengers.
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| The hole of Melbourne bound Qantas Airways Boeing 747 is seen after it made an emergency landing at the international airport in Manila on Friday. AFP |
Experts were working on the theory that an explosion in the luggage hold or a broken panel caused a fuselage break in the 747 that made an emergency landing in Manila Friday, a source close to the investigation said.
Regardless of the cause, the source said the 365 passengers and crew on the flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne were lucky to be alive after a three metre (10 foot) hole was punched in the jet's belly at 29,000 feet (8,800 metres).
“They were very lucky,” the source, who asked not to be identified, told AFP. “While it is too early to say what actually caused the hole, we will be looking at two possibilities ... something exploded in one of the bags or a panel came loose on the fuselage” the source told AFP.
The source said the explosion might have been caused by a pressurised container inside a piece of luggage, saying a bomb was unlikely.
Qantas officials and experts from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are working with Philippines authorities on the investigation.
Meanwhile, the plane's passengers completed their interrupted journey to Australia, staging emotional reunions with relatives and recalling how they thought they would die as the plane plunged towards the South China Sea.
Many were still shaken by the ordeal which saw the aircraft plunge 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) in an emergency descent before stabilising. |
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