Qantas Flight Loses Pressure, Drops 26,000 Feet

A Qantas flight making its way from Adelaide to Melbourne dropped 26,000 feet suddenly after the cabin became depressurized, according to the Agence France Presse.

The Boeing 737 was roughly 30 minutes from Melbourne when oxygen masks fell from the plane's ceiling as the plane dropped from its cruising altitude of 36,000 feet to a whopping 10,000 feet.

The culprit? The plane's air conditioning system. An airline spokesman told the AFP: "There are two air conditioning systems on the aircraft -- one of them failed at the cruising altitude, that's when they started to descend."

Passengers on the plane had quite a fright. A passenger told Fairfax radio that "there was a little bit of panic down the back of the plane and some of the passengers needed to be comforted by the hostesses. One lady in particular was fairly panicked."

Fortunately, the plane landed without incident and no one was injured.

It's been a rough couple of months for Qantas planes: In August, a Sydney-bound flight was forced to return to the San Francisco airport 45 minutes into the flight after the plane's engine blew. And in November, a flight from Singapore to Sydney had to make an emergency landing after one of the plane's engines shut down, causing the airline to ground all A380s.

Comments

[pangaia]

06:11 PM on 01/27/2011

Makes one wonder about the accuracy of other HUFFPO headlines and stories, doesn't it.. :>)

[btdenver]

06:03 PM on 01/27/2011

This is ridiculous. They didn't *drop,* suggesting a loss of control. They *descended* to a altitude where passengers could breath without oxygen masks -- e-NOR-mous difference.

[Yanceyville]

01:58 PM on 01/27/2011

I beg dr for a valium script for the trip..I hate being on a plane. Former ATC I KNow what can go wrong, even if it is rare.
Once on a small 6 place Piper Cub the engine cut out at 90 FEET of altitude just after take off and we dropped 65 feet to 26 barely missing the buildings at the end of the runway. I will never ever get back on a small plane..that was the first and only time.

[AirViceMarshalPark]

06:06 PM on 01/28/2011

The "Piper Cub" ended production in 1947. In any event, they were only two place and a six seater was never built or even planned.. How long did you work for Air Traffic Control?

[philly282]

12:31 PM on 01/27/2011

insert Rainman reference here

[Rasberry]

11:49 AM on 01/27/2011

As a commonly "particularly panicked" flyer myself, I appreciate all of the pilots' input here! No doubt that if I had been on that flight, I would have been in full blown panic attack mode. The one thing I always tell myself when I board a plane is, "The pilot know what he is doing." So, thank you for bring the hyperbole.. down a notch;)

[David Christensen]

09:20 PM on 01/26/2011

And yet, still better than Delta...or any other American airline that I've been on.

[aurora59]

03:53 PM on 01/26/2011

Kudos to the pilot and flight crew!

[Rich Phitzwell]

03:36 PM on 01/26/2011

Err why is this even here? It happens from time to time, and I dont think it was the plane that dropped rather the pilots commanded the plane to go to regulatory altitude for decompression SOP.

[BuckyJamesDio]

10:12 PM on 01/25/2011

After reading through the comments here, I have to say I am so pleased to see not only actual pilots who will correct the hyperbole, but also non-pilots who understand aerodynamics, weather patterns, physics, and good ol' reality.

Thanks for being smart.

[rotorhead1871]

09:50 PM on 01/25/2011

he could have stopped at 12.5K......but 10K is in the book....

[AirViceMarshalPark]

12:29 PM on 01/26/2011

12.5K would mean leveling off at a VFR altitude but 10K is an IFR altitude. That was always my supposition about why 10K is common.

[CessnaDriverI72]

09:49 PM on 01/25/2011

(Bumped up from below)

If you have ever tried to talk to a non-aviati­on reporter about aviation issues, you'd see that they are not inflicted with mental giantitis.

For instance, I have fought with several people who keep repeating the lie that JFK, Jr. had a "black box" on his plane and the battery was removed...­.how sinister..­.he had a 5.7 ounce "clearance recorder" in the dash and the 99 cent store 9V backup battery wasn't in i

[angrymanspokane]

06:46 PM on 01/25/2011

Exciting ride no doubt, but that's exactly what's supposed to happen. Just change your shorts and thank the pilot for a job well done.

[CessnaDriverI72]

09:34 PM on 01/25/2011

Pro forma and by the book.

If the Captain doesn't do that, everybody dies.

My sister got a test ride on a 747-400 when it first came out and got treated to a cabin depress drill-four times in a row.

But, they got free lunch.

[kevinbaja]

09:38 PM on 01/25/2011

how many times did that lunch come back up?

[Rick Eriksen]

06:01 PM on 01/25/2011

Well actually that is called explosive decompression and what you call a sudden drop is a controlled maneuver…because if they didn’t do that in about thirty seconds everyone on the plane would be dead…so the pilots did exactly what they needed to do exactly when they needed to do it…

[tonewheel]

06:12 PM on 01/25/2011

Exactly, Rick. What the article fails to explain, and therefore falsely implies, is that the plane fell uncontrolled all by itself before the pilots could regain control and level the wings. What happened, in fact, was what you described.

(long time pilot of 30 years)

[PrimeMover]

06:38 PM on 01/25/2011

Thanks fellow pilots for getting this information out there! With such a blatantly over-the-top, sensationalist headline followed by an article that fails to correctly describe the situation, it either speaks to the author's lack of understanding of flying or it shows a willful attempt to mislead. Either way disingenuous and lazy. HuffPo can do better than this.

[Telly Savalas]

07:29 PM on 01/25/2011

Let's all use some science here instead of fear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_Useful_Consciousness
Everyone most certainly would NOT be dead in 30 seconds. As you no doubt know, Rick, there are quick-don masks in every commercial airliner that flies in this range of altitudes. The pilots put them on and make a steep and rapid descent which is very scary to anyone not familiar with unusual attitudes, but - just as they did, it recovers the aircraft and the passengers without any ill effect. Not as dramatic as the HuffPo headline, but certainly not something most people will ever experience.....

[Happyexpat]

05:10 PM on 01/27/2011

MMmmm, hope I never do. I might easily have been that woman in full-blown panic.

[kkvv]

05:49 PM on 01/25/2011

Tom Petty called is "Free Fallin"

[Rich Phitzwell]

03:45 PM on 01/26/2011

Odd I always thought it was "free balling"

[IveGotNews4U]

05:33 PM on 01/25/2011

And why the hell are you showing an A380?

Shame!

[AirViceMarshalPark]

06:15 PM on 01/25/2011

They could, just as easily, have chosen a B-17. They seem to know absolutely nothing about aviation, as the text of the article demonstrates.

[CessnaDriverI72]

09:53 PM on 01/25/2011

Try explaining the difference between "home made" and "home built".

[Happyexpat]

05:10 PM on 01/27/2011

B-17!!! The best!!!!

[jetscan]

06:49 PM on 01/25/2011

It's not A380 on the ground! It looks like a 737. The one landing looks like a 767.