SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA // Passengers told of terror in the sky when their Qantas Airways plane suddenly plunged nose-first over Australia, tossing travellers around the cabin, causing fractures, concussions and bruises. Air safety investigators said today that instruments aboard the A330-300 warned pilots of a glitch in the stabilisation system just before the sudden altitude changes on yesterday's flight from Singapore to the western Australian city of Perth.
"It was horrendous, absolutely gruesome, terrible, the worst experience of my life," said Jim Ford, a passenger from Perth. He said he thought he was about to die as he watched unbelted passengers being flung around the cabin. The plane, carrying 303 passengers and 10 crew, was 11,000 metres and nearing its destination when the incident occurred. It made an emergency landing in Learmonth, Western Australia, about 1,100 kilometres north-east of Perth.
More than 40 people were taken to hospitals for treatment, with 14 seriously injured. Seven Air Transport Safety Bureau investigators were in Learmonth to study the incident and have quarantined the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. They will also interview the crew and passengers. Qantas, which has been beset by a string of safety problems in recent months, said it was co-operating with the bureau and also conducting its own investigation.
Julian Walsh, the director of the ATSB's aviation safety investigation, told a news conference that the pilots received electronic messages "relating to some irregularity with the aircraft's elevator control system," which helps keep the plane level in flight. The aircraft then climbed approximately 90 metres before it "abruptly pitched nose down," Mr Walsh said. It was unclear how far the aircraft dropped during the incident. Walsh said environmental factors, such as turbulence, could also have been at play and that it was "too soon to draw any conclusions as to the specific cause of this accident".
Passengers who were not wearing seat belts flew into the air, some hitting the ceiling of the plane. Loose items scattered throughout the cabin and some overhead luggage compartments flew open. "It was like a hurricane inside ... like a war zone," Keith Burns, from Lancashire, England, told 2UE radio. "All of a sudden it dropped like a brick, a lead balloon and then it levelled off again and a couple seconds later it fell again.
"There were screams and all the interior was breaking all over the place,» he said. "It's an experience I wouldn't like to do again." Qantas and the ATSB said 14 people had serious, but not life-threatening injuries such as concussions and broken bones. Thirty other passengers were treated in hospitals for concussions, minor lacerations and fractures. Another 30 people with minor bruises and stiff necks did not require hospital treatment.
Mr Walsh said the investigation - also including an Airbus investigator - could take months but a preliminary report would be released within 30 days. Investigators will examine flight data recorders, on-board computer systems, air traffic control and radar warnings and weather conditions, he said. Qantas said it was assisting the ATSB. "Our primary concern remains the welfare of our passengers and crew on board the flight, and we are focused on doing everything possible to assist them," the Qantas chief Geoff Dixon said in a statement.
*AP
