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PERTH, Australia: Passengers told Wednesday of their terror as a Qantas jet plunged dramatically in mid-flight, slamming them against the cabin roof, breaking bones and causing spinal injuries.
Police said 36 passengers and crew were injured, 20 seriously, when the Australian Airbus A330-300 flying from Singapore to Perth suddenly dropped thousands of feet in just a few seconds on Tuesday, forcing an emergency landing.
"It was horrendous, absolutely gruesome, terrible, the worst experience of my life," said Jim Ford, of Perth, who said he thought he was going to die when he saw his fellow passengers being flung around the cabin.
Several passengers said the plane had fallen around 2,000 metres (yards) while cruising over the Indian Ocean, hurling people and objects around.
Qantas described the incident as a "sudden change in altitude."
"Passengers and crew not wearing seatbelts were flung around in the plane, some hit the ceiling," said Nigel Court, who was among the 303 passengers on board the jet.
Video footage showed smashed ceiling panels in the plane that made an emergency landing at an air force base near Exmouth in remote Western Australia after the incident that reports said could have been caused by turbulence.
News pictures showed passengers being taken off the jet by emergency services on stretchers and in wheelchairs.
Around a dozen of the injured were flown to Perth for treatment, while Qantas planes were sent to pick up the remaining passengers.
"Basically the plane just fell out of the sky," one passenger told Sky News. "It must have lasted 10 or 12 seconds, it just went straight down," he said.
Perth resident Ben Cave said the plane dived twice. "We had a major fall and another fall shortly after. I hit the ceiling but I was OK, I only got a few bruises and strains. I just remember seeing the plane was a mess," he said.
An Australian air safety investigator said Wednesday that a computer glitch may have caused the incident, but Qantas said it was too early to speculate on what triggered the plunge. Its Perth regional manager Ian Gay said investigators would look at clear air turbulence as a possible cause.
"When these sorts of things occur, one is never sure until you check everything as to what has actually happened," Gay said.
Air Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigators were in Exmouth, where the plane has been grounded, to examine the aircraft and its black box and cockpit voice recorders to establish the cause of the drama.
The ATSB said the investigation into the incident could take up to six months, but a preliminary report could be completed within 30 days.
The incident is the fourth involving Qantas planes in just two-and-a-half months and comes as a survey published late Tuesday showed that 63 percent of Australians believe the safety standards of their flag carrier have slipped.
The poll of 1,000 people was conducted by UMR Omnibus, one of the country's leading research and polling companies, two weeks ago.
On July 25, an exploding oxygen bottle punched a huge hole in the side of a Qantas Boeing 747-400 during a flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne, forcing an emergency landing in the Philippines. No one was injured in the mid-air drama.
Just three days later, a Qantas Boeing 737-800 returned to Adelaide after a landing gear door failed to retract. And in early August a Boeing 767 bound for Manila turned back to Sydney after developing a hydraulic fluid leak.
- AFP/yb
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