[gniewkoit]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshom...on-qantas-jet/

Pressurisation fails on Qantas jet
Yahoo!7 and AAP January 25, 2011, 4:45 pm


Qantas's mechanical woes continue, with an aircraft flying from Adelaide to Melbourne forced into rapid descent after its cabin depressurised.

Oxygen masks dropped in the Boeing 737 400 with 99 passengers on board after its cabin lost pressure about 30 minutes out from Melbourne on Tuesday morning.

"The flight crew requested a rapid descent to 10,000 feet," a Qantas spokeswoman told AAP.

"The aircraft landed without incident and no medical assistance was required."

She said the cause of the depressurisation was not known, but it could have resulted from an air conditioning fault.

The plane was reportedly forced to drop from 36,000 to around 10,000 feet.

One passenger told ABC radio the depressurisation caused some panic.

"There was a little bit of panic down the back of the plane and some passengers needed to be comforted by the hostesses," he said.

"One of them (a passenger) was fairly panicked and a couple of hosties tried to fan her down."

Another passenger told News Limited the in-flight scare occurred shortly after the plane's departure from Adelaide at 6:10 am this morning.

He said the captain announced the descent was taken as a precaution after the Boeing 737 400's air-conditioning failed.

"All of the oxygen masks dropped down," the passenger was quoted as saying.

"The captain came across and said 'This is an emergency'."

Do you know more? Email us with information and pictures

Tuesday's incident is the latest in a shocking run for the national carrier, which had to ground its entire A380 fleet in November after one of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines exploded in mid-air shortly after take-off from Singapore.

The total cost of grounding its entire fleet of A380s, and replacing 16 of the A380 engines, has been estimated at $80 million.
The day after the A380 near-disaster, a Qantas 747-400 aircraft had a mid-air incident, with flames bursting from an engine just after take-off from Singapore.