July 29, 2008 08:06am Coolangatta 6C - 18C. Dry, winds easing. Weather
Qantas plane suffered corrosion
25 July 2008THE Qantas plane forced to make an emergency landing in the Philippines after a massive hole opened up in its fuselage had been plagued by a history of corrosion.
News Limited reports today that engineers discovered a large amount of corrosion in the Qantas jumbo during a major refurbishment earlier this year.
The 17-year-old Boeing 747-400, registration VH-OJK, received a new interior at Victoria's Avalon Airport in March.
Aviation sources said aircraft engineers had noted a "lot" of corrosion during the refit, the report said.
QF Flight 30 from London to Melbourne had left Hong Kong airport yesterday after a stopover at 9am local time, (11am AEST), when an explosion ripped through the plane's underside.
Some of the 346 passengers aboard told of how debris flew through the cabin and oxygen masks dropped down.
The crew brought the plane down to 10,000 feet and requested an emergency landing in Manila, where emergency crews were on hand when it touched down safely.
Qantas said it had arranged for a replacement plane to fly to Manila to collect the passengers return them immediately to Melbourne.
The replacement Boeing 747 was expected to leave the Philippines capital shortly after 11pm local time last night (0100 AEST today), to arrive in Melbourne this morning (AEST).