A plane headed to Brisbane somehow flew for 14 hours with a whole-ass hole in its side in what an aviation expert is calling a “one in a million” case.
Per CNN, the Airbus A380 travelled the entire journey from Dubai to Brisbane on July 1 with a stonking great hole in its side, allegedly after a tyre burst shortly after takeoff.
Apparently, the tyre pop managed to blow a hole in the plane’s aerodynamic fairing (essentially the skin of the plane) and miraculously didn’t do any further damage.
#Emirates, Airbus #A380 (A6-EVK) flight #EK430 has landed in #Brisbane with a hole in the side of aircraft after a wheel exploded during its take off from #Dubai, crew told to ATC during its approach to Brisbane.
📷 Avherald#Airbus #Australia #UAE #aviation #AvGeek #avgeeks pic.twitter.com/WjmKmde8wi
— FlightMode (@FlightModeblog) July 3, 2022
Pardon my language but absolutely fucking not.
Imagine getting off a long-haul flight to find your plane had a fuck-off huge hole in the guts and nobody even knew about it. That’s a bit too close to the edge for me, thank you very much.
Emirates addressed the nightmare-fuel incident in a statement and confirmed the blowout hadn’t damaged the fuselage, frame or structure of the plane.
“Our flight EK430 flying from Dubai to Brisbane on July 1 experienced a technical fault,” the statement read.
“One of the aircraft’s 22 tires ruptured during cruise, causing damage to a small portion of the aerodynamic fairing, which is an outer panel or the skin of the aircraft.”
A passenger on the flight said it was “absolutely terrifying” at first but felt reassured that the cabin crew weren’t also freaking out.
Was also on this flight. Was absolutely terrifying at first and the cabin crew knew something serious may have happened – were immediately in contact with the cockpit. Shortly after, they resumed as normal. Their calm demeanour was reassuring – they knew it was not catastrophic.
— Andrew Morris (@AndrewMorris203) July 3, 2022
Euronews reported the flight crew checked the wings and engines as soon as they realised something was off but because the hole was on the underside of the plane it wasn’t picked up by cameras or sensors.
Look I know everything is all good and fine with this hectic story but it doesn’t make me feel good about getting four flights in the next couple of weeks, I tell ya what.
