Qantas Flight Suffers Unexplained Mechanical Turbulence

Fifteen passengers were left with minor injuries after a ‘stick-shaker’ warning was suddenly triggered onboard QF29.

Australian authorities are investigating a mid-flight mechanical incident that caused severe turbulence onboard a Hong-Kong bound Qantas plane last Friday.

Qantas Flight QF29, which had taken off from Melbourne, Australia, was approximately 68 miles southeast of the city when the plane began to shake violently due to what is being referred to as a ‘stick-shaker’ warning. This warning, which caused QF29’s control stick to vibrate, was triggered suddenly and unexpectedly.

This mechanism, explains the Daily Mail, is used to warn the crew of an imminent stall to an aircraft. The warning system is physical rather than visual, the paper adds, so that a plane’s pilot will be notified of any potential danger even if they are not looking at the controls.

The turbulence caused by the sudden triggering of this system lasted two minutes and some passengers were left with minor injuries as a result of the incident. QF29 landed safely in Hong Kong, but the paper reports that a local ambulance was on stand-by to meet passengers as a precautionary measure.

One person was taken to a local hospital for a medical assessment upon landing. Qantas, which confirmed that those onboard had experienced ‘unexpected in-flight turbulence’, said that it had informed the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) of the incident. “We notified the ATSB of the occurrence, and our own teams are also reviewing the event,” a spokesperson stated.

Commenting on the incident, the ATSB was quoted by the outlet as saying that, “The flight crew disconnected the autopilot and maneuvered the aircraft in response.” The safety body also said that it was treating this incident as ‘serious’ and would release a full report in several months, after it had conducted interviews with the crew of the Boeing 747 aircraft.

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