Manila (Philippines) – A Qantas jumbo jet made an emergency landing after a faulty door exploded open during flight.  Qantas Flight 30 from Hong Kong to Melbourne had to quickly descend 20000 feet and eventually landed in Manila.  All 346 passengers and 19 crew on the Boeing 747 aircraft were not hurt.

Passengers heard a “huge bang” approximately 20 minutes after the flight took off.  It appears a small maintenance or cargo door gave way and left a three-meter diameter hold in the fuselage, decompressing the cabin and causing the oxygen masks to drop.  According to some media reports, some passengers started screaming and vomiting, but the pilot and crew quickly took action and calmed everyone down.  Some passengers also reported seeing their luggage coming up into the passenger compartment.

The pilot made an emergency descent from 30000 feet to approximately 10000 feet and eventually landed in the Philippines to the thunderous applause of the relieved passengers.

Such explosive decompressions aren’t anything new and they do happen from time to time because of faulty maintenance or metal fatigue.  But some experts are already blaming the explosion on a bomb.  Sky News interviewed David Learmount, an editor at Flight International magazine, who said some kind of explosive in the suitcase might have caused the explosion. 

Not a cargo door

Jul 25, 2008 20:47     

Its behind the forward cargo door, and its on a panel about 2-4 windows behind it.
Tom report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Qantas?

Jul 26, 2008 01:25     

Charlie: Ray, all airlines have crashed at one time or another, that doesn't mean that they are not safe. Raymond: QANTAS. QANTAS never crashed. Charlie: QANTAS? Raymond: Never crashed. Charlie: Oh that's gonna do me a lot of good because QANTAS doesn't fly to Los Angeles out of Cincinnati, you have to get to Melbourne! Melbourne, Australia in order to get the plane that flies to Los Angeles!
joe schmoe report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Bomb?

Jul 26, 2008 09:30     

"But some experts are already blaming the explosion on a bomb" With most investigations, that's canceled out pretty quickly, even if there are reported explosions. The explosion is probably the boom of the cargo door (or is it?) detaching, due to the violent decompression. This is probably the case with this one as well.
KillFrenzy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

not sure what is worse

Jul 27, 2008 17:59     

almost exploding in the air or ending up in Manila.
Mr. Gogo report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +2

erroneous report

Jul 28, 2008 19:20     

Door did not blow open, you made that up. You = hack.
derrrrr report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0