An oxygen cylinder is missing from the Qantas jetliner that was forced to make an emergency landing in the Philippines after a mid-air explosion punched a hole in its fuselage.
Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority is investigating whether an exploding oxygen container was responsible for ripping a jagged hole in the fuselage of flight QF30 from London to Melbourne last Friday.
The Boeing 747-400 was cruising at 8,800 metres with 346 passengers aboard when it was shaken by the blast, but the crew landed safely at Manila Airport.
Neville Blyth of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has told a news conference in Manila one of the cylinders which provides back up oxygen is missing, although it is too early to say if this caused the explosion.
He also says investigators have no found no sign of a bomb.
Mr Blyth said tests for bomb residue were negative and Philippine officials had bomb-sniffing dogs go through the hold, finding no indication of explosives.
Inspection ordered
The Civil Aviation Authority (CASA) has ordered Qantas to urgently inspect every oxygen bottle aboard its fleet of 30 Boeing 747s after the mid-air explosion.
The authority expects the inspections to begin on Monday and be finished within a few days.
CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said Qantas would be asked to check each oxygen container and the brackets holding the containers.
Mr Gibson said: "It will be a visual inspection and it is a precautionary step."
He said "the inspection will take a couple of hours for each plane so it will take a few days to do them all."
CASA is investigating whether an exploding oxygen container was responsible for ripping a jagged hole in the fuselage of flight QF30 from London to Melbourne.
Corrosion 'not the cause' of gaping hole
Qantas boss Geoff Dixon says corrosion was not the cause of a gaping hole that appeared in the body of the plane.
The Qantas chief executive said he was "horrified" after seeing pictures of the hole, but says preliminary checks indicate there was no corrosion anywhere near where this hole occurred.
CASA also said Friday's incident was probably not caused by corrosion, as some reports speculated.
Mr Dixon said the plane had undergone checks in 2004, 2006 and earlier this year, all in Australia.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is heading the inquiry into the accident. Four investigators are looking at the damage and investigating maintenance records and other aspects of the flight, including flight data recorded and cockpit voice recorder.
The incident occurred in international waters, meaning the responsibility for investigations fell on the country in which the airline was based.
Passengers terrified
The Boeing 747 jumbo jet was en route from London to Melbourne via Hong Kong on Friday when a section of the cargo bay was ripped open.
Passengers have told of a terrifying mid-air emergency, when they heard a loud bang before the aircraft rapidly lost altitude.
The plane had a hole estimated to be about three metres in diameter on the right side of its underbelly.
Some passengers caught up in the midair emergency say the oxygen masks didn't work properly.
Beverley Doors from Phillip Island says she and her husband were left without access to an oxygen mask for about three minutes as the plane lost altitude, because the masks above her and her husband's seats did not come down.
"My husband just about went out to it, because he didn't have any oxygen for about three minutes, that's the way it happened."
St Kilda architect David Saunders told The Sunday Age that masks failed to drop down in some parts of the cabin.
"A guy just went into a panic and smashed the whole panel off the ceiling to get to the mask. The kids were screaming and flailing. Their cheeks and lips were turning blue from lack of oxygen."
Another passenger, Paula Madejon, said she had to share her mask with two other people, and, in the row behind her, nobody had a mask.
