Crippled Airbus A380, saved by Pros! | Qantas flight 32

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What I don't understand is with all the extremely expensive equipment on a plane, they still haven't added a screen in the cockpit with cameras looking at the engines/wings. It is probably the most inexpensive safety equipment they can add to any plane that could shave quite a lot of time off diagnosing problems.

I was on this flight sitting with my wife and 9 month old next to the left wing. I still remember the sound of the explosion and the shuddering of the aircraft. A detail to add to your article is that the passengers we’re concerned but calm, but what worried me the most was the face of the 2nd officer after surveying the damage. When I’ve recalled the incident to friends, the other detail I recall is the speed when we landed - I was astonished that we stopped. It took me 2 years to fly again after I arrived back to Sydney, and prior to your review I have never watched a debrief of the incident. In saying that, my conclusion was we should have great confidence in the Qantas pilot training, their senior pilot competence and fly with QF for most long haul trips. Thx for the review - informative and affirming about the performance of the pilots.

Its also a testament to how robust the A380 is, even with so many failures it still kept flying and most importantly was controllable

As a mariner, I appreciate your use of red and green cushions on the correct side.

"What do we have that isn't Damaged?" "AIR CONDITIONING IS FULLY OPERATIONAL" - Oh thank god for that.

Throughout my 41+ years as a CFII, I have always had the mindset of "What is wrong with the airplane?", or "How can I fix what is wrong?" Today all of that changed! I am actually ashamed to say that not once have I ever approached a problem thinking "What is still operating correctly and how can I best use what is available to me to correct the problem, or to land?" Admittedly, I have only had a small handful of emergencies that needed to be handled, but this new approach for me will definitely make a huge difference in the future! Thank you very much for giving me this new tool to use, not only in aviation but in life itself.

Having met and having the pleasure to speak to Richard de Crespiny at length, there was a third and very key quality to the sucessful outcome of QF32. Something that lacked conversely (and sadly) in the crew of Air France AF 447 .... his commitment to thoroughly learn everything he could about the A380 from her engineering to all the built techno redundancies. He probably knew the A380 as well as Airbus themselves. A true hero. As a true aviatuon "tragic" from OZ, love your vids.

As one of the pilots of QF32 said: "It was a check captian checking a check captain checking a captain."

Hi, I’m a retired Qantas Engineer and remember that day very clearly, at the time I was involved in the maintenance of a great number of components and systems. The first news that we received was that the aircraft had crashed, but the fly control centre could see and had all the parameters that indicated the contrary, after a short wile Singapore confirmed that the plane was still flying, that was a big relief for everyone. I personally think that that was the finest hour for Qantas, and after proudly serving for 30 years in the company can say that all the time and money spent on training, from the cleaners on the workshop to the flying crews was money and time well spent!! Finally to correct a previous comment, no passenger of Qantas, the second oldest airline in the world, has Ever lost it’s life due to injury wile travelling, Never. In 1953 they were the development company for the current day’s auto pilot, yes that’s true, but we never lost an aircraft or passenger. Your video, comments and understanding of the incident was excellent!!! Thanks!!

When I book flights I usually book another airline because of price, which is quite okay, until the aircraft starts taxiing, and then a little anxious part of me runs around inside my head saying “should have flown QANTAS” “should have flown QANTAS” “should have flown QANTAS”. No airline is perfect, but QANTAS hasn’t had a fatality since 1953 when they helped develop the black boxes that are in every large aircraft these days. They are not perfect, but they have had a safety first attitude for decades that has given them an excellent record.

I read the captains book and after they all retuned to the terminal building he spoke to all the passengers assembled and gave them his personal mobile phone number and said if anyone is not looked after he would personally chase it up. It’s a great read QF 32. I read somewhere that Qantas gave 1st class around the world tickets to all passengers.

Worth noting that the captain in charge, Richard de crespigny was a former RAAF pilot who had experience in STOL approaches on unfinished air strips using a variety of cargo aircraft and so when it came time to operating under pressure and with an uncertain aircraft configuration, his prior experience was invaluable for bringing QF32 down safely We’re all pretty proud of him down under, our own Sully. His book QF32 is definitely worth a read as it fills in a lot of the background that helped get him to where he needed to be when that incident happened.

My Aunt and Grandmother was on this flight. They had no idea of this emergency that took place and how well the flight crew handled it. My Grandmother was so clueless about the whole issue that her biggest complaint was that they didn't serve tea on time... Very grateful to the amazing flight crew and Captain for the efficient handling of this emergency and for not starting an evacuation. Which always leads to some injuries and my grandma was 80+ at the time...

I am a retired a380 Cabin crew and they use this example so much in training on how to handle the cabin and CRM between flight deck and cabin crew. Unbelievable everytime how the managed to save this bird and all souls. phenomenal flight deck and purser.

Random but I couldn't help but smile at the dogs relaxing/snoozing beside him like they are just used to him sitting on the couch, talking to a camera 🙂

I worked for Rolls-Royce in Engineering when this happened and afterwards. It sent shockwaves through the organisation as the failure crossed internal business units (Structures to Rotatives), the item which initially failed was "unclassified" (HP/IP structure oil stub pipe) but the disc was "Cat A critical" (risk of uncontained failure), the engine level FMECA forsaw this and ignored it and the FADEC software made it worse by thinking it was a surge and trying to accelerate out of it (it threw fuel on a fire). In manufacturing (where I worked) we had to introduce a completely new method for product introduction - high design severity (defect will cause engine failure) AND poor manufacturing capability (manual weld in a restricted place) AND poor inspection (radiography not possible due to restricted access). Impossible datum strategy caused stub pipe misalignment, manual welding caused porosity in the weld, no NDE missed the porosity, bearing vibration caused cracking, which caused slow oil leak in a hot zone with no fire detection/suppression, which caused slow burn fire, which caused the IPTD to overheat, exceed its maximum hoop stress and burst.

The captains book QF32 about this incident is a brilliant read.

When I saw this in TV it really hit me emotionally when I saw the level of skill and professionalism in the cockpit. Real heroes

It's so shocking to me just how many failures these guys had to handle, I couldn't even keep track of them sitting comfortably in my home. But these pilots just handled all of them like it was just another day in the office as if it was something they do all the time. It's just unfathomable that nobody got hurt.