Peter Woodman
Shaken but relieved airline passengers were last night continuing their journeys after surviving a terrifying ordeal in which a gaping hole appeared in their jumbo jet 30,000ft up.
Flooring gave way, part of the ceiling collapsed and debris flew into the first class cabin on the Qantas Boeing 747 that was flying from London to Melbourne.
Scared passengers, some of whom were woken up by a loud bang, had to put on oxygen masks as the plane descended after losing cabin pressure on the Hong Kong-Melbourne leg of the flight.
Film shot by passengers and displayed on websites showed the scenes on board the plane as the captain announced that he was making for Manila in the Philippines for an emergency landing.
Passengers spoke of "part of the ceiling" flying past them, while others told how children were crying. Some aboard vomited after the plane managed to land safely at Manila, with all 346 passengers and 19 crew able to disembark normally.
As air accident investigators probed the cause of the incident, passengers, who spent Thursday night in Manila, were flying on to Melbourne in a replacement Qantas Boeing 747.
Initial investigations suggested a section of fuselage had separated and there had been an "explosive decompression".
Pictures of the stricken plane at Manila showed a large hole in the aircraft's fuselage through which luggage could be seen.
Debra Manchester, a housewife from Buckinghamshire, was sitting in first class when the incident began. She said: "Newspapers and what looked like part of the ceiling flew past me. We didn't know what was happening. After a while, things calmed down and there was a deadly silence."
Phil Restall, from London, added: "Seeing the hole caused a lot of emotion. People were physically shaking. Many realised how close they were to their own mortality."
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