Terrorist bomb placed in same spot as Pan Am 103 but on opposite side of the plane forced the plane to land...the hole was a by-product. B
_____ Hole forces Qantas plane to land http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pa cific/7524733.stm A passenger films the Qantas forced landing from inside the plane A passenger plane en route from London to Melbourne has made an emergency landing in the Philippines after a large hole appeared in its fuselage. Qantas Airways said its Boeing 747-400, with 346 passengers and 19 crew, diverted to Manila shortly after leaving Hong Kong and landed safely. Engineers are investigating what caused the hole - about 2.5m to 3m in diameter - that led to cabin pressure problems. An airport official said passengers looked scared and some were sick. Seeing the hole caused a lot of emotion. People were physically shaking Phill Restall, passenger Airport authority spokesman Octavio Lina said part of the flooring near the affected section gave way, exposing some of the cargo below, and part of the ceiling also collapsed. "Upon disembarkation, there were some passengers who vomited. You can see in their faces that they were really scared," he said. 'Gust of wind' Passengers described hearing a large bang and feeling a rush of wind and debris through the cabin about an hour after Flight QF30 left Hong Kong at 0900 local time (0100 GMT). The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the aircraft made an emergency descent from 29,000ft to 10,000ft. It said initial information indicated that a section of the fuselage had separated in the area of the forward cargo compartment. Passenger Olivia Lucas told the BBC everyone was "pretty scared for a few moments". "Then everyone focused on getting their oxygen masks on," she said. "Everyone was calm and quiet and there was notable relief when we landed. Everyone applauded the pilot." "We are very lucky we landed safely and no-one was hurt." Phill Restall, from the UK, was woken "with a jolt" by the loud bang before the plane descended rapidly. "No-one panicked, there was no screaming. It wasn't your typical television movie," he told the BBC News website. "Everyone listened to the cabin staff." He said other passengers had told him young children in the main cabin were crying. Delayed shock Mr Restall, who was reassured to see the engines "still spinning", said they wore the oxygen masks for about 15 minutes, until the plane levelled out. WHY QF30 DESCENDED 20,000FT 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 The pilot then told passengers they were going to land in Manila to have a look at the damage. "Everyone was fairly calm, partly because they didn't realise the extent of it," he said. "After we disembarked it started to dawn on people that this was a major incident. There were 350 people up there who were very lucky. "Seeing the hole caused a lot of emotion. People were physically shaking. Many realised how close they were to their own mortality." Other passengers reported seeing items flying out of the aircraft. Dr David Newman, of Flight Medicine Systems, says forcing the plane into a rapid descent after a sudden loss of pressure is a standard emergency procedure. He says that when cruising, the internal cabin is pressurised to a much lower altitude than outside the aircraft, which is also extremely cold. "When you've lost pressure, all that high pressure air in the cabin leaves the airplane and from a medical point of view you've got the risk of lack of oxygen - which is compensated for by the oxygen masks," he said. "The descent is designed to limit how much time you spend up there and of course one of the other issues is that the mass flow of air leaving the airplane - if it's an explosive decompression - will take a lot of loose objects and articles around the cabin and basically try and leave the aircraft via the hole." The flight, which had been due to arrive in Melbourne at 1145 GMT, landed in Manila just after 0300 GMT (1100 local time ). Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said engineers were investigating what might have caused the hole in the fuselage. He said Qantas had provided all passengers with accommodation and a replacement aircraft had been arranged. The airline boasts of never having lost a jet, but has seen some of its aircraft involved in minor accidents in recent years. Were you on the flight? Did you take pictures or video footage? Send your pictures to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or text them to +44 7725 100 100. If you have a large file you can upload here. <http://bbcnewsupload.streamuk.com/> . Read the terms and conditions <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/2780295.stm#yourpics> At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7524733.stm Published: 2008/07/25 14:22:08 GMT C BBC MMVIII _____ What went wrong on Qantas flight? Hole in Qantas plane <http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44863000/jpg/_44863379_db6b31fc-acf9- 468a-af76-b355569ad60e.jpg> The hole resulted in rapid depressurisation at 29,000ft. Investigators and engineers are already working to establish what blew a hole in the belly of a Boeing 747-400 plane. The plane is now on the ground at Manila in the Philippines after the pilots brought it safely down from the drama at 29,000ft. The Qantas airliner was on a scheduled flight to Melbourne when passengers suddenly heard a loud bang, about an hour after taking off from Hong Kong. It appears to have been loud enough to have woken passengers who were sleeping. A hole up to three metres (10 feet) across had appeared in the forward cargo hold. <http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif> POSSIBLE PROBLEMS Corrosion or other maintenance issues Exploding oxygen cylinder Deliberate or accidental explosion sparked by something in luggage Passengers grabbed their oxygen masks as wind whipped through the cabin and the pilots put the plane into an emergency descent. First reports from passengers suggested they believed a door had somehow come loose, but images clearly show the damage is in the plane's fuselage, away from doors. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, classifying the incident as serious, says a section of the fuselage separated, resulting in rapid decompression of the cabin. The bureau is sending four investigators to Manila to help local authorities work out what went wrong. The drop would doubtless have felt dramatic and terrifying to passengers, but was a controlled manoeuvre and in accordance with normal procedures for sudden cabin depressurisation. Possible causes There are no early indications to suggest any kind of explosive device was on board the plane, although this will be a factor investigators will want to rule out. The damage occurred in an area where baggage was being stored - indeed some bags are believed to have fallen through the hole. But that does not necessarily indicate that a bag was the source of the problem. Anything large enough to have caused this level of damage - either accidentally or deliberately - should theoretically have been picked up by airport security checks. Airline security levels and procedures have changed dramatically since a bomb was placed in luggage on board Pan Am Flight 103 from London Heathrow to New York's JFK on December 21 1988 - blowing it up in midair above Lockerbie. In that incident - involving a Boeing 747-121 - 270 people died on the plane and on the ground . However, the possibility of a problem within passengers' luggage is certainly an area investigators will want to rule out. Corrosion focus? Other attention has focused on oxygen cylinders - or possibly even fire extinguishers - which are also carried in that part of the plane. No indication has emerged of circumstances which would have caused one of the cylinders to explode, but again this is likely to be an area of focus for the investigators. The maintenance of the plane will also be under close scrutiny, and could well be where the inquiry has its main focus. The plane - registration VH-OJK - is believed to have been delivered to Qantas in 1991, so the airline's maintenance of it throughout those 17 years should be available to investigators if required. Officials may want to seek confirmation that normal checks have been carried out properly, and that any previously known problems were dealt with satisfactorily. In particular, officials are likely to want to check for possible corrosion in the area where the damage occurred. Corrosion could plausibly have been enough to have caused the damage - if even a small section of the plane's aluminium skin was able to break free, the enormous pressures generated at cruising altitude could have been enough to do the rest. Other possible causes might include accidental external damage to the plane on the ground, or something inside the plane which had not been properly secured and slammed into the fuselage at some point. Worst-case scenarios And remaining at the forefront of many minds - not least of those on board - will be a "what might have been" scenario. If debris from the hole had been sucked into the engines, could the pilots have been dealing with engine failure or loss as well as an emergency descent? Or if the structural damage had passed a certain "tipping point", could the plane have started to break up in mid-air? Certainly part of the flooring near the affected section is said to have given way, exposing some of the cargo below, and part of the ceiling also collapsed - although this may have been part of the plane's built-in "responses", giving way in a planned manner to prevent even greater pressures building up on the main structure. As it was, the mid-air drama ended with more than 360 people walking off the plane suffering from nothing worse than severe shock and vomiting. They and the investigators will be thankful the investigation is focusing on a hole in a fuselage, not the loss of a Boeing over the South China Sea. (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: <http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
