FED: Oxygen bottles checked across Qantas' fleet after explosion

AAP General News (Australia)
08-01-2008
FED: Oxygen bottles checked across Qantas' fleet after explosion

SYDNEY, Aug 1 AAP - Checks on oxygen bottles on Qantas' fleet of Boeing 747s will be
completed today after an explosion blew a hole in a jet flying from Hong Kong to Melbourne
last week, the airline says.

A Qantas spokesman said maintenance workers began inspecting the pressurised bottles
carried by more than 30 aircraft early this week.

"It has been in process for a few days ... we do the checks as the aircraft arrive
back in Australia," he told AAP today.

"We will complete checks of the cabin emergency oxygen bottles across our Boeing 747
fleet tonight."

The inspections come after an explosion tore through part of the fuselage of a Boeing
747-400 plane as it was flying from London to Melbourne last Friday.

The stricken plane, with 365 people on board, made an emergency landing in Manila,
where it is now the subject of an investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau
(ATSB) and other authorities.

A faulty oxygen bottle has emerged as the most likely source of the explosion, which
caused a loss of pressure in the cabin and led the plane to plunge several thousands feet.

An ATSB spokesman today said the investigation was continuing.

AAP dr/evt/jl/de

KEYWORD: PHIL QANTAS

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