Serious Injuries on a Qantas A330 Flight on 7 October 2008

http://qantas.airsafe.org - A Qantas Airbus A330-300, with 303 passengers and 10 crew members on board, was on a scheduled international flight from Singapore to Perth. While in cruise, the aircraft reportedly experienced some type of sudden and unexpected altitude change. The crew issued a mayday call before diverting the aircraft to the airport at Learmonth, near the town of Exmouth, about 1100 kilometers or 680 miles north of its intended destination of Perth.

About 36 passengers and crew members were injured, with over a dozen severe injuries. Reportedly, several occupants were slammed into the ceiling during the event. Most of the injuries were to passengers and crew in the rear of the aircraft, and at least one person was carried off the plane in a stretcher. About 13 of the most seriously injured were flown to Perth by four aircraft from the Royal Flying Doctor Service. One flight attendant was hospitalized with suspected head and spinal injuries. Other serious injuries included fractures, lacerations, and a concussion.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• a330
• accident
• airbus
• australia
• flight
• incident
• injuries
• qantas
• safety
• singapore
• upset

[tornadochaser76]

you seem to know alot about the whole situation....

tell me again...where is Exmouth? and can you pronounce it properly?

[airsafe]

Exmouth is a few miles NW of Learmonth. If you look at the video at 0:38, you'll see a graphic with Exmouth. A graphic with Learmonth is at 0:24.

As for pronunciation of Exmouth, I listened to a few Australian television news reports and give it my best approximation (or at least the best I could do after four takes).

[resotaz]

note: sorry for my bad english...

[resotaz]

Hi all. The investigation by the ATSB has identified a default of the ADIRU equipping the A330, A340 and B777. During a failure, they do not come out of the loop by themselves, and send alarms many contradictory (false information such as overspeed, stall, altitude ....) If pilots realize that the fault comes from the ADIRU and want to switch it off (off), it stays on! So they have to put out the fuse, and it will be well explained by an airworthiness directive text of this aircraft.

[praetorian2150]

aka the plane fell outa the god dam sky outa nowhere

[Ananananiful]

did a qantas plane ever crash? if it never did the posebilety that it will crash while i´m on board is higher. I mean even Lufthansa did crash once cause of a lightening. Nothing u can do if that happens....

[seanus991]

qantas has actually never crashed, they hve just had accidents when people are just injured

[14waltersn]

This can't be from the autopilot or hydralics or electronics. Indonesia and Northern Australia has one of the most severe turbulances in the world. This sudden altitute change must be from a massive turbulance that dropped them like 6000 feet in 2 seconds. I've experience one on the same type of aircraft but from MAS from CGK to KUL. dropped around 2000 feet a second.

[carrollcrescent]

It's not just the aircraft. The pilots may not be well -trained, eg. Greg Panazzolos of FO of QANTAS.

[falconeaterf15]

Military aircraft have used fly by wire since the 70s, but they also had a "mechanical-mode" for emergency use when the electronics failed. Seem a good idea to have both. Planes have crashed from hydraulic failure. Planes have crashed from fly by wire foul ups. None have crashed from simultaneous system failures. I would gladly trade 1500 pounds of "entertainment" sytem for its weight in a hydraulic control back up system!

[ansettaddict123]

i dont really care:) just remember that electronics need time to prove themselves, just as hydralics did

[timefilm]

wouldn't you rather fly outdated yet time proven hydrolics over electric impulses telling a computer to activate a robotic? call me old fashioned, but if those outdated hydrolics fail, the pilots can still control the plane.