Passengers tell of horror Qantas plane plunge

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-08 11:23

Perth -- 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.

Some 36 passengers and crew were injured, 20 seriously, when the Australian Airbus A330-300 flying from Singapore to Perth suddenly dropped thousands of feet (metres) 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 the cabin.

"Passengers and crew not wearing seat belts 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.

"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.

Qantas and air safety investigators said it was too early to speculate on what triggered the plunge, but Qantas's 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.

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.