Up to 40 injured in Qantas mid-air jet 'upset'

PERTH, Australia (AFP) — Up to 40 passengers and crew were injured, some seriously, in a mid-air incident that forced a Qantas jetliner to make an emergency landing, the Australian carrier and police said on Tuesday.

The incident was the latest in a series that have tarnished the safety record of Qantas, which has long boasted a reputation of being one of the world's safest airlines.

The Airbus A330-300 made an emergency touchdown at an airfield near the Western Australian town of Exmouth after issuing a mayday call when the plane suddenly changed altitude during a flight from Singapore to Perth, Qantas said.

"A number of passengers and crew sustained injuries, including fractures and lacerations, on board QF72 this afternoon en route from Singapore to Perth following a sudden change in altitude," the airline said.

"Emergency services, including medical attendants, met the aircraft on landing," a statement from the 90-year-old Australian airline said.

Qantas could not immediately confirm the number of injured or whether it was turbulence or another factor that had caused the aircraft, which was carrying 303 passengers and 10 crew, to drop or rise suddenly during flight.

A fleet of emergency vehicles was on standby at the Learmonth air base, about 1,100 kilometres (680 miles) northeast of the state capital Perth, when the plane landed, said Sergeant Greg Lambert of the West Australian Police.

"It is understood up to 40 people were injured during a mid-air incident," he said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said early reports indicated that around 30 passengers and crew had been hurt, 15 of them sustaining serious injuries, including broken bones and cuts.

"While cruising in level flight, the aircraft experienced a sudden in-flight upset, resulting in injuries to a number of cabin crew and passengers, primarily in the rear of the aircraft," the bureau said in a statement.

"The crew declared a mayday and diverted the aircraft to Learmonth ... where it landed without further incident," it said, adding that it was sending seven investigators to Learmonth to establish what happened to the jet.

An emergency services worker said paramedics had boarded the Qantas aircraft and were tending to the injured after it touched down at around 1:35 pm (0535 GMT), 35 minutes before its scheduled landing time in Perth.

Australia's famed Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) said it was poised to dispatch four of its flying ambulances to airlift six to eight of the fracture victims to Perth for treatment, but said none were in danger.

"I don't believe that there are any in a life-threatening condition," said RFDS public affairs director Lesleigh Green.

"But if people have had hits on the head or have been hit by flying objects, until you actually assess that, you don't know whether it could be a spinal or neurological issue."

Qantas is sending two aircraft to Learmonth from Perth to collect passengers and crew stranded in the remote northwest of Australia.

In July, an exploding oxygen bottle punched a huge hole in the side of a Qantas Boeing 747-400, forcing an emergency landing in the Philippines. No passengers were injured in the mid-air drama.

The plane, which was carrying 365 people, was cruising at 29,000 feet (8,800 metres) en route from Hong Kong to Melbourne when the terrifying drama struck.

Australian air safety investigators in August announced a safety review of Qantas after two other incidents occurred involving its aircraft within two weeks.

On July 28, a Qantas Boeing 737-800 returned to Adelaide after a landing gear door failed to retract. In early August a Boeing 767 bound for Manila turned back to Sydney after developing a hydraulic fluid leak.

But the aviation watchdog, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), said that despite the review there was no evidence to suggest any links between three mid-air emergencies on Qantas flights.

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Fonte: Flight Safety Information 07/10/2008.