Computer brings down Qantas jet
We told you to turn it off
INVESTIGATORS say that a problem with an onboard computer might have caused a Qantas jet to suddenly drop out of the sky.
The Qantas Airbus A330-300, with 303 passengers and a crew of 10, struck what the airline described as a "sudden change in altitude" problem mid-air incident between Singapore and Perth.
What we would describe as a “large plane suddenly plummeting to earth for no apparent reason” problem caused the plane to make an emergency landing at Learmonth, about 40 kilometres from Exmouth with more than 20 of the passengers and crew aboard seriously injured. Some had spinal injuries and others limped out of the grounded plane with broken bones and cuts.
Pilots received electronic centralised aircraft monitoring messages in the cockpit relating to some irregularity with the aircraft's elevator control system.
In another euphemism the aircraft then "departed level flight", and climbed approximately 300 feet for no apparent reason.
The crew had initiated the non-normal checklist response actions when the plane abruptly pitched nose down. Or went arse over tit as we would less euphemistically say.
L'Inq
AP
Comments
Beware discounts
Airbus were told not to install the hal9000 series as it had homicidal tendencies but surplus discount must have been attractive.Brilliant!
"departed level flight" - What a great way of putting it.Comparable to my "deviation from standardised perambulation" last time I was "full of weekend cheer" I suppose.
Shonky.
sloppy reporting
You *might* describe it as “large plane suddenly plummeting to earth for no apparent reason” problem , but since it didn't plummet to earth, that would be dumb. It didn't go arse over tit, either, so that would be dumb too. What it did do, from the sound of it, was throw the people in the rear seats into the roof, hard. Glad I wasn't there.