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chiselray
B.V. Truth Hunter
Joined: Feb 16, 2002
Posts: 15199
Location: **IN NUMBER 37
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 Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:08 am Post subject: Qantas passengers tell of terror as Perth-bound plane plunge |
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Qantas passengers tell of terror as Perth-bound plane plunges
PASSENGERS onboard the turbulent Qantas flight have described haunting images of children and babies hitting the ceiling of the plane.
While the incident left some with spinal injuries and others with broken bones and lacerations, many Qantas passengers have been scarred by the terrifying scenes.
"The poor little kid next to us, we watched him hit the ceiling and sit there for about three seconds, until his dad dragged him back into his seat," passenger Mark Bell told ABC news.
Another passenger, Mike Maxwell, said: "Some people were up for toilets and those sorts of things, and so they were the ones who really suffered worse I suppose and people obviously with young children and so on, babies hit the ceiling and come down again."
Related Section
The Airbus A330-300 was carrying 303 passengers and 10 crew from Singapore to Perth when it experienced what Qantas has described as a sudden change in altitude.
The injured passengers were flown to Perth on five Royal Flying Doctor Service aircraft last night and transferred by ambulance to city hospitals.
Enlarge More local coverage of this story at PerthNow
Gallery First pictures from the Qantas emergency
Related story Blemishes on Qantas's safety record
The Air Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the incident, while Qantas is conducting separate internal investigations as well, its chief pilot Captain Peter Wilson said.
"And the purpose of those is obviously to get the facts as to what happened," Captain Peter Wilson told Fairfax Radio.
"It's important to note that really most discussions about this, at this point in time, are speculation."
Meanwhile, a pilot from the Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) said modern passenger planes are built to cope with sudden drops in altitude, especially on the Singapore to Perth flight path.
"When you cross those jetstreams as you do from Singapore to Perth ... you run across the transition boundary," said Captain Ian Woods.
"It's at that point where you're crossing from smooth air to fast-flowing air, that there can be quite unexpected and significant turbulence.
Captain Woods, who is also a Qantas pilot, said turbulence is nothing pilots "can't cope with".
"Aeroplanes have been refined over the years and if we go back to the '50s, then these kinds of events were worse than they are now."
http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,24464745-5014090,00.html
KF 
Start driving people its safer |
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