QF30 Emergency Landing in MNL after door "Popped"

[Ikara]

Having watched the news on all 4 free to air channels, it didn't look like a door to me. From what I can see it's where the leading edge of the starboard wing joins the fuselage. All of the reports are saying there was a "bang"????

JB

 

[Keith009]

Thankfully i ain't on QF30 till Sunday. But OTOH it'd have made one hell of a TR...

 

[maninblack]

Just saw the photos. YIKES. Can anyone here recall seeing that sort of damage in that area on an aircraft before?

 

[holdenvxman]

Having watched the news on all 4 free to air channels, it didn't look like a door to me. From what I can see it's where the leading edge of the starboard wing joins the fuselage. All of the reports are saying there was a "bang"????

JB

Im thinking what your thinking.... very strange, very close to the centre fuel tank as well

 

[v8Statesman]

Im thinking what your thinking.... very strange, very close to the centre fuel tank as well

Does not suggest a bomb or anything like that. Rapid decompression can sound like (and in many ways act like) a bomb.

 

[holdenvxman]

Does not suggest a bomb or anything like that. Rapid decompression can sound like (and in many ways act like) a bomb.

I do know this but you can't rule it out.

 

[Mal]

I do know this but you can't rule it out.

Or someone packing something in their luggage which didn't like high altitude. But that's just idle speculation. I think it's best people wait until some concrete facts come out from people like the ATSB before guessing what went wrong.

 

[v8Statesman]

Or someone packing something in their luggage which didn't like high altitude.

Would have to be a pretty big (overfilled??) something, to cause that damage!

I'll put $20 on it being metal fatigue around the rivits. Anyone for some action?

 

[Mal]

I'll put $20 on it being metal fatigue around the rivits. Anyone for some action?

With a detailed photo like this:
http://media.aftenposten.no/archive/00816/PHILIPPINES-PLANE___816172a.jpg

Your chances are too high! (Hattip to DownUnderFlyer for the link)

 

[v8Statesman]

With a detailed photo like this:
http://media.aftenposten.no/archive/00816/PHILIPPINES-PLANE___816172a.jpg

Your chances are too high!

I honestly had not seen that picture before I laid down my wager

 

[holdenvxman]

well we know the door didn't "pop" open

 

[Alanslegal]

I'll put $20 on it being metal fatigue around the rivits.

Yep definitely agree here. My view is the sheet metal expands & slowly separates, the rivets gradually wears out and eventually breaks, the separation of metal causes a small hole to form which leads to a massive decompression reaction.

The metal is designed to break up in smaller controlled segments however given the size of a 747 there is alot of cabin air that expels and thus rips off a larger part of the fuselage than normal.

Thanks to Air Crash Investigations

Can anyone here recall seeing that sort of damage in that area on an aircraft before?

Yes

Aloha Airlines Flight 243 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Alanslegal]

Geez, Wikipedia is so fast!!! QF30 is now already added.

Qantas Flight 30 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[straitman]

Im thinking what your thinking.... very strange, very close to the centre fuel tank as well

holdenvxman,

Are you a journalist by any chance :?:

 

[holdenvxman]

Yep definitely agree here. My view is the sheet metal expands & slowly separates, the rivets gradually wears out and eventually breaks, the separation of metal causes a small hole to form which leads to a massive decompression reaction.

The metal is designed to break up in smaller controlled segments however given the size of a 747 there is alot of cabin air that expels and thus rips off a larger part of the fuselage than normal.

Thanks to Air Crash Investigations




Yes

Aloha Airlines Flight 243 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

there was a JAL 747 crashed a few years back when the tail blew off, but that was a maintance fault from boeing when they only used one row of rivits when they should have used two

 

[holdenvxman]

holdenvxman,

Are you a journalist by any chance :?:

nope far from it... lol although I do talk to them a fair bit at work

 

[v8Statesman]

there was a JAL 747 crashed a few years back when the tail blew off, but that was a maintance fault from boeing when they only used one row of rivits when they should have used two

Few years back , it was 12/07/85. It was fatigue cracks that caused this to fail. (as pointed out, 1 row not 2 rows of rivits.)

 

[dot]

Additionally - Aloha Airlines had an incident where corrosion prevented the rivets from holding and the result was a much bigger hole! - See Wikipedia (Aloha 243)

 

[codash1099]

holdenvxman,

Are you a journalist by any chance :?:

Not likely. A journalist would have used a headline like:

"Terror at 29000 feet" .

Hang on a minute! That's exactly the headline used in "The West Australian" today!

 

[oz_mark]

Reading the articles you would think that the descent from 29000 ft to 10000 ft was an uncontrolled plunge, rather than noting that's what pilots are trained to do