Qantas Flight 72

Qantas Flight 72 (QF72) was a scheduled flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Perth Airport by an Airbus A330. On 7 October 2008, the flight made an emergency landing at Learmonth Airport near the town of Exmouth, Western Australia, following an in-flight upset that included a pair of sudden, uncommanded pitch-down manoeuvres that caused severe injuries—including fractures, lacerations and spinal injuries—to several of the passengers and crew. At Learmonth, the plane was met by the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia and CareFlight. Fourteen people were airlifted to Perth for hospitalisation, with thirty-nine others also attending hospital. In all, one crew member and eleven passengers suffered serious injuries, while eight crew and ninety-nine passengers suffered minor injuries. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigation found a fault with one of the aircraft's three air data inertial reference units (ADIRUs) and a previously unknown software design limitation of the Airbus A330's fly-by-wire flight control primary computer (FCPC).

Background

The aircraft involved was an Airbus A330-303 twin turbofan aircraft, registered as VH-QPA.

The crew was led by Captain Kevin Sullivan (53), a former US Navy (1977–1986) pilot who had moved to Australia. The first officer was Peter Lipsett, and the second officer was Ross Hales. Captain Sullivan had 13,592 flight hours, including 2,453 hours on the Airbus A330. First Officer Lipsett had 11,650 flight hours, with 1,870 of them on the Airbus A330. Second Officer Hales had 2,070 flight hours, with 480 of them on the Airbus A330.

In addition to the three flight-deck crew members, there were nine cabin crew members and 303 passengers, for a total of 315 people on board.

Flight details

On 7 October 2008 at 09:32 Singapore Standard Time (SST), Qantas Flight 72, with 315 people on board, departed Changi Airport in Singapore en route to Perth Airport in Australia. By 10:01, the aircraft had reached its cruising altitude of around 37000 ft and was maintaining a cruising speed of Mach 0.82.

The incident started at 12:40:26 Australian Western Standard Time (AWST), when one of the aircraft's three air data inertial reference units (ADIRUs) started providing incorrect data to the flight computer. In response to the anomalous data, the autopilot disengaged automatically. A few seconds later, the pilots received electronic messages on the aircraft's electronic centralised aircraft monitor, warning them of an irregularity with the autopilot and inertial reference systems, and contradictory audible stall and overspeed warnings. During this time, the captain began to control the aircraft manually. The autopilot was then re-engaged and the aircraft started to return to the prior selected flight level. The autopilot was disengaged by the crew after about 15 seconds and remained disengaged for the remainder of the flight.

At 12:42:27, the aircraft made a sudden, uncommanded pitch-down manoeuvre, experiencing −0.8 g, reaching 8.4 degrees pitch down and rapidly descending 650 ft. Twenty seconds later, the pilots were able to return the aircraft to the assigned cruise flight level, FL370. At 12:45:08, the aircraft made a second uncommanded manoeuvre of a similar nature, this time causing an acceleration of +0.2 g, a 3.5 degree down angle, and a loss of altitude of 400 ft; the flight crew was able to re-establish the aircraft's assigned level flight 16 seconds later. Unrestrained (and even some restrained) passengers and crew were flung around the cabin or struck by overhead luggage which broke through the overhead compartment doors. The pilots stabilised the plane and declared a state of alert, which was later updated to mayday when the extent of injuries was relayed to the flight crew.