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At least 175 planes could have been affected"
'Fatal' gas pumped into Qantas jet
Matthew Benns
December 16, 2007
POTENTIALLY fatal gas being pumped into a passenger jet's emergency oxygen tanks in Australia has sparked a worldwide safety investigation.
The Australian Safety Transport Bureau confirmed yesterday that Qantas engineers accidentally put nitrogen into the oxygen tanks of a Boeing 747 at Melbourne Airport.
Qantas immediately checked oxygen supplies on more than 50 of its planes that had been serviced by a wrongly labelled nitrogen cart at Tullamarine.
But an aviation source said: "This could have affected hundreds of planes worldwide. Any international jet that passed through Melbourne and was serviced by Qantas could have had nitrogen pumped into its oxygen tanks."
Health experts warned that in an emergency the nitrogen could be fatal.
Dr Ian Millar, director of the hyperbaric medicine unit at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital, said: "If there was an emergency and the pilot took nitrogen instead of oxygen, instead of gaining control of the aircraft he would black out and it would be all over. It's a pretty serious mistake."
Non-flammable nitrogen is commonly used to fill aircraft tyres.
The aviation source said: "Qantas took delivery of the new nitrogen cart 10 months ago.
"It looked exactly like the old oxygen cart. When the attachments did not fit they went and took them off the old oxygen cart and started using it."
The mistake was spotted by an aircraft engineer and reported to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, which declared it a one-off incident. But the aviation source said: "This could have affected at least 175 planes."
An Australian Transport Safety Bureau spokeswoman said Qantas identified 21 aircraft at risk and another 30 at minor risk because of oxygen top-ups.
The planes were inspected and no positive results found.
Qantas engineering executive general manager David Cox said safety checks had been put in place.
"Every aircraft, including customer aircraft, that could have been touched by this rig has been checked," he said.
Source: The Sun-Herald
At least 175 planes could have been affected"
'Fatal' gas pumped into Qantas jet
Matthew Benns
December 16, 2007
POTENTIALLY fatal gas being pumped into a passenger jet's emergency oxygen tanks in Australia has sparked a worldwide safety investigation.
The Australian Safety Transport Bureau confirmed yesterday that Qantas engineers accidentally put nitrogen into the oxygen tanks of a Boeing 747 at Melbourne Airport.
Qantas immediately checked oxygen supplies on more than 50 of its planes that had been serviced by a wrongly labelled nitrogen cart at Tullamarine.
But an aviation source said: "This could have affected hundreds of planes worldwide. Any international jet that passed through Melbourne and was serviced by Qantas could have had nitrogen pumped into its oxygen tanks."
Health experts warned that in an emergency the nitrogen could be fatal.
Dr Ian Millar, director of the hyperbaric medicine unit at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital, said: "If there was an emergency and the pilot took nitrogen instead of oxygen, instead of gaining control of the aircraft he would black out and it would be all over. It's a pretty serious mistake."
Non-flammable nitrogen is commonly used to fill aircraft tyres.
The aviation source said: "Qantas took delivery of the new nitrogen cart 10 months ago.
"It looked exactly like the old oxygen cart. When the attachments did not fit they went and took them off the old oxygen cart and started using it."
The mistake was spotted by an aircraft engineer and reported to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, which declared it a one-off incident. But the aviation source said: "This could have affected at least 175 planes."
An Australian Transport Safety Bureau spokeswoman said Qantas identified 21 aircraft at risk and another 30 at minor risk because of oxygen top-ups.
The planes were inspected and no positive results found.
Qantas engineering executive general manager David Cox said safety checks had been put in place.
"Every aircraft, including customer aircraft, that could have been touched by this rig has been checked," he said.
Source: The Sun-Herald
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