Qantas Airbus flight turned into a 'war zone'

Without Western Australia's good weather, this could have been a re-run of the disastrous Air France flight from Brazil to Paris. An Airbus A330 was involved in both cases. Relying on heavily computerized aircraft was always an act of faith. We all know that computers often fail in one way or another. The best all-round computer is still between a pilot's ears



QANTAS passengers have revealed the horrific moment they thought they would die in a terrifying plunge that sent travellers hurtling through the air, smashing teeth and bones and tearing ligaments. "All of a sudden the plane dropped like a brick," one passenger said. "It was like a hurricane inside the plane, like a war zone." "The plane fell again," said another. "I thought: 'I didn't think I was going to die in a plane crash, but obviously I am'".

These traumatic descriptions form part of a class action filed in the US against defendants including airline giant Airbus, maker of the ill-fated A330-300 that plummeted twice in quick succession during the flight from Singapore to Perth in October 2008.

More than 100 of the 301 aboard were hurt when a computer glitch caused the plane to nosedive first 650, then 400 feet (320m in total) over Western Australia. Passengers suffered spinal, head, neck and chest injuries from being catapulted into the overhead lockers. Others lost teeth, tore knee ligaments and suffered serious cuts and broken ribs, feet, ankles and hands in the incident.

Eighteen Australians have so far joined the product liability case being run by Wisner Law in Illinois where the potential damages could significantly exceed a similar case run here. The Wisner Law class action covering 37 plaintiffs alleges "defective and unreasonably dangerous conditions"caused the passengers to suffer "serious physical and psychological injury". The action includes a plaintiff's four children and two Qantas employees who were off-duty at the time.

Wisner Law specialises solely in aviation litigation and anyone who signs up agrees to hand over a third of any money they recover - a practice banned in Australia.

Locally, Turner and Freeman lawyer Michael Hyland is acting on behalf of several other passengers who are considering suing Qantas under the Civil Aviation Act, which caps damages at $500,000. Mr Hyland said the airline had been "co-operative" shortly after the incident, paying all of the injury treatment expenses in Australia and overseas, including transport and accommodation for the families of the victims. "It appears psychological injuries are having much more of a profound impact than the physical," he said. Problems reported include post-traumatic stress, nightmares, flashbacks, difficulty sleeping and fear of flying. Mr Hyland has until October this year to file a claim on behalf of his clients.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has yet to release its final report on the incident but last year found that one of the plane's three data units had streamed wrong information to flight computers. The spikes across nine data categories knocked out the plane's autopilot system, leading to the plunges.

Qantas has since installed new software on its Airbus A330 aircraft. The airline is not a defendant in the US class action and has declined to comment further on the matter. If the case proceeds to trial a jury will determine liability and damages.

Law firm Slater & Gordon is also representing some of the injured passengers and London firm Stewarts Law is acting in the matter in the UK.

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