Titanic in the Sky

Another in our series Adventures in Air Travel
A guest blog by Marion Carroll

It was a very long flight on November 4, 2010, Qantas 32 from London to Sydney, Australia, with one stop for refuelling at Singapore and a chance for me to stretch my legs. I had a lovely seat, as it turned out, the best window seat on the plane. The Airbus 380 easily accommodated 440 passengers on its two decks running the length of the plane. It was equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and was the largest passenger plane at that time.

Once refueling was complete we took off from one of the world’s longest runways with no incident. The four massive Rolls Royce engines catapulted us upward towards our cruising altitude. The atmosphere in the cabin was perfectly usual, until four minutes into the flight. I heard a backfire, like from a car; it was, however, a huge explosion. I immediately thought “my gosh, this is it.”

Unknown to me, in the cockpit the crew of five received countless malfunction notifications which indicated that one engine had stopped working. This alone would not have terminated the flight. The malfunction messages, from all over the plane, kept coming.

I couldn’t see the engine itself as it hung from the underside of the wing. I could however see a hole in the wing ringed by jagged metal due to the explosion. The crew was concerned that the fuel stored in the wing might ignite given the heat of the engine fire. They could not extinguish the fire remotely. Nor could they cut the flow of fuel to the engine.

Also unknown to me and other passengers was how the crew dealt with their limited ability to fly the plan. Eventually, they were able to slowly and carefully turn the plane around to return to Singapore. The crew communicated to air traffic control, “We’re just sorting out some engine problems.” Indeed they were, as all systems seemed to be failing in every conceivable way.”

A pilot entered the cabin, and having arrived at my window seat concluded that the wing has been punctured from below. “The left board engine is blown to pieces,” to which he added to those near me “we’ll be fine, no worries at all.” Right, good to know!

It took fifty-five minutes to stabilize the aircraft. While flying the plane was challenging, landing would be even more difficult, and dangerous. Unless we could dump much of the 105 tons of fuel we would be too heavy to stop in time despite Singapore’s long runway. It would also be a challenge to use three engines to stop the plane on the ground. Add to that, there was no assurance that the landing gear would lock in place.

I knew that take-off and landing the most crucial times for air travel. more crucial, a more dangerous time.” Such knowledge was to say the very least, concerning. “We as passengers were simply not aware that so many things had gone wrong.” The crew continued their calculations and at one point, unknown to us, actually rehearsed their ability to control and direct the plane on final approach. They were a unified and experienced team for which to this day I am extremely grateful.

As I am here to tell the tale, you will discern that we landed safely with only 150 metres of runway to spare. The danger persisted however. On board we clapped and heaved sighs of relief. All we wanted to do was open the door and rush through it. But not yet, was the caution. Fuel on the plane and on the ground, and the presence of red-hot brakes posed considerable danger. The air outside was highly toxic and the risk of explosion remained. Local fire crews doused the plane and landing area with foam but the crew still could not shut the problematic engine down. In fact, the situation almost as bad as while in flight.

“It was tense for me inside; I couldn’t see why we couldn’t get off.” We were advised to “remain seated while the fire crews do their job, to spray foam, and reduce possibility of fire.” The crew constantly faced the question, to evacuate, or not? There were good reasons for each action.

Three hours after landing, we learned that “the aircraft was now safe; we can let you off.” “When we walked off the plane, there was a great sense of relief, my legs were shaking, I must have been more nervous than I was aware.”

You might well ask, did this put me off flying? Well my family live in many places that require distant travel. I still have close connections to Ireland, the land of my birth and schooling. And my adopted son, Ken, encourages me to visit him on a regular basis. So I hold my nose, and never, ever tell my seatmates about Qantas 32.

Marian adds that the successful outcome of the incident was due to the leadership skills & knowledge of the pilot, Captain Dr Richard de Crespigny. Richard was later Awarded an Honorary Doctorate & the Order of Australia for his efforts.. Richard soon became a popular speaker about the incident and has Published 2 books. The first is simply called QF32 which details the account and his life story. A second is called “Fly” which is a wonderful book about leadership and is really a book of skills for life for anyone. Information on the books ca be found here.

Much of the above text is drawn from a National Geographic documentary Qantas 32 Titanic In The Sky https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3234896/ A different summary of events is available via the video link below. WARNING—If you are squeamish about air travel, perhaps your time is better invested.

Others in the Adventures in Air Travel series include Way Down South, The Plane Truth, and Lines, Bloody Lines.