it continues....
QANTAS has revealed that water was responsible for a rare incident that robbed a flight from London to Bangkok of its main electrical power and forced it to land on Monday using a battery back-up.
Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti said the water entered a generator control unit, causing a loss of power and prompting the aircraft to automatically revert to standby power.
The aircraft is back in operation and landed at Sydney today.
"The aircraft was subjected to stringent inspections and testing in Bangkok before being cleared to fly," he said.
"As is normal practice, we are conducting our own investigation as well as working with Boeing, the ATSB (Australian Transport Safety Bureau) and CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority) on their investigations. A more detailed report on the incident will be released by the ATSB in due course.
"As a precaution, Qantas has inspected its entire Boeing 747-400 fleet and all of these aircraft have been cleared to fly."
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The Boeing 747-400 was operating Flight QF2 and was about 15 minutes out of Bangkok when the highly unusual failure took place and a battery back-up system kicked in.
The battery back-up is designed to provide at least 30 minutes of power but aviation sources said the failure could potentially have been disastrous had it happened over the ocean at night.
The aircraft landed safely and passengers were accommodated overnight and transferred to other flights while it was repaired and checked.