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Reports: Qantas plane forced to return to airport
2008-07-28
MELBOURNE, Australia - A Melbourne-bound Qantas jet was forced to return to Adelaide's airport Monday night after a door above the one of the wheels failed to close, Australian media reported Tuesday. Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson told The Daily Telegraph the aircraft's wheels came up after takeoff but the undercarriage door would not retract -- a malfunction he deemed on the "lower end" of the danger scale. "This aircraft was not in danger at any stage -- it was more of an aerodynamics issue than anything else because it would have created a lot of drag," Gibson told the newspaper. "The pilot would have had to have made a judgment call, like he was trained to do, and he decided to bring the flight back to Adelaide, which was the safer option." Passenger Rocco Russo told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio that he heard a rattling noise about 10 minutes after the plane took off. Qantas did not respond to multiple phone calls and an e-mail seeking comment early Tuesday morning. One passenger, Gunter Kubler of South Africa, told The Telegraph he was too scared to fly to Melbourne after the incident. "It was absolute chaos on the plane and then they had to turn it around and bring it back to Adelaide," he said. "They had to bring in another plane to fly people back, but I don't trust them so I will take a bus or a train to Melbourne." Gibson said he expects a report from the airline within the next couple of days. The incident comes just three days after a Qantas jumbo jet made an emergency landing in the Philippines with a hole the size a small car in its fuselage.
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