Qantas airlines had a pretty incredible save the other day The NYT reports:
The jumbo jet, which carried 346 passengers and 19 crew members, landed safely on Friday and those on board left without injury. As a piece of fuselage the size of a sedan ripped from the plane, the jet, Qantas Flight 30, had been forced to descend steeply to 10,000 feet from 29,000 feet.
Passengers described hearing a loud bang and seeing debris fly into the cabin. As the plane depressurized, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and cabin crew members shouted to passengers to put them on.
Here’s the part that’s particularly incredible:
He said passengers were not in danger from the depressurization because aircraft that fly above 10,000 feet are generally required to carry oxygen systems. The atmosphere is thin above that altitude, and people can function for only a few minutes without oxygen before becoming groggy and losing consciousness.
Pilots are trained to bring a plane down swiftly to 10,000 feet, where passengers and crew can breathe without assistance. Given that the Qantas jet was at 29,000 feet, the plane dropped roughly a mile a minute, “not the kind of descent you would normally subject passengers to,†Mr. Mann said.
The Times also lists other Qantas close calls and a similar incident from 20 years ago.
Qantas has also had some close calls. In 1999, a Qantas jet ran off a runway in Bangkok while landing in heavy rain. There were no reports of serious injuries.
More recently, a Qantas-operated Boeing 717 was damaged in February when it sustained a hard landing at Darwin, Australia. The landing gear, tires and fuselage of the plane, flown by QantasLink, the airline’s regional carrier, were damaged.
In 1988, a gash opened in a Boeing 737 belonging to Aloha Airlines at 24,000 feet on a flight from Hilo to Honolulu, Hawaii. A chunk of the plane’s roof and the cockpit door were blown out. One flight attendant was killed when she was swept out of the plane, and 65 passengers and crew members were hurt.
Federal investigators said the accident was caused by metal fatigue, exacerbated by corrosion caused by salt water.
The Times mentions the famous Qantas claim and the scene in Rain Man that popularized it.
The Times points out that in its early years before it was incorporated as Qantas it did lose some jets. USA Today’s airline blog has more on how the airline has protected that claim.
The Guardian notes Qantas “paid a reported $100 million to repair it, way above the value of the Boeing 747-400, apparently so it could preserve its ‘never lost a jet’ status.” The airline has had several other incidents during the past decade, but — so far — none have resulted in the loss of a jet.
The cynical tone doesn’t seem right. Even if Qantas has to declare a plane a loss, it’s still a pretty incredible safety record. Last week’s heroic piloting should be a reason to emphasize the record, not question it.
(h/t Mrs. Soccer Dad)
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
It really is an incredible story.