An AirAsia Perth to Bali flight that suddenly lost cabin pressure and plummeted 20,000 feet – terrifying passengers – was dropping at a rate of 11 metres a second, a preliminary investigation by Australia’s transport safety watchdog has found.
Flight QZ535 departed Perth for the popular Indonesian tourist destination at 11.20am on October 15, but was forced to turn back 30 minutes after take-off with 146 passengers and six crew members on board.
The aircraft plunged from 32,000 feet to 10,000 feet, with dramatic footage captured by passengers showing crew members instructing passengers to “get down, get down” as oxygen masks drop and they were ordered to adopt the brace position.
A preliminary report, released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau on Wednesday, showed the flight crew noticed a pressurisation system fault “appear and then disappear” when they first began their ascent.
Around 20 minutes later another caution was activated relating to the opening of the pressurisation system safety valves.
The crew attempted to switch the controls to manually close the valves and stop the cabin’s pressurisation rate from climbing, but before the pilots could complete their checklist, the caution had again disappeared.
Three minutes later, however – 30 minutes into the flight – another more serious warning appeared – an altitude warning – which automatically requires crew members to commence an emergency descent.
The warning triggers when the cabin altitude is about 9,550 feet and the aircraft is above 10,000 feet.
“The flight crew informed the cabin crew manager that they were going to conduct an emergency descent, donned their emergency oxygen masks and started the descent,” the ATSB report read.
“Shortly after, the cabin crew manager reported to the flight crew that the emergency oxygen masks in the cabin were not deployed and the flight crew then manually deployed them.
“The cabin crew reported that they secured the cabin and instructed the passengers in accordance with their emergency descent procedures.”
Airport traffic controllers at first had difficulty understanding the flight crew through their oxygen masks, but an emergency landing at Perth Airport was eventually arranged.
No one was injured in the incident and the aircraft suffered no damage.
It was determined during post-flight maintenance tests that the cabin pressure controller was faulty.
Passengers at the time told reporters they thought they were going to die.
“I actually picked up my phone and sent a text message to my family, just hoping that they would get it,” Perth woman Leah told Nine News Perth.
“We were all pretty much saying goodbye to each other. It was really upsetting.
“The masks fell down and everybody started panicking. Nobody told us what was going on.”
The ATSB has reviewed the aircraft data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, interviewed flight and cabin crew and reviewed the aircraft’s pressurisation system.
No safety issues have been identified to date.
Further investigations will examine aircraft maintenance records, inspection results, training records and cabin safety documentation and procedures.
A final report is expected to be published by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in May 2018.
Source : WA Today
TV TOTAL 