Qantas Blames 'Cosmic Rays' For Last Year's Roller Coaster-Like Flight

November 18, 2009 at 5:09 PM | by amandak | Comments (0)

We have a pretty decent respect for Aussie airline Qantas, with its better-than-average safety record and generally trouble-free flights (of course, we're not impressed by the recent beer ban on some flights, but it probably was in the name of safety, so who are we to complain). And now we can feel a little better about last year's mid-air drama over Western Australia, because investigators are blaming cosmic rays.

You might vaguely remember that in October last year, a Qantas flight from Singapore made an emergency landing after some rollercoaster action: it suddenly plunged 650 feet, got back up again then fell 400 feet. This led to some serious passenger injuries (no deaths, though) and a whole lot of serious questions. At the time, a lot of people were blaming passengers using laptops and other electronic devices.

Now air safety investigators have released their second interim report into the incident and they seem to think a problem with one of the data collectors caused the drama. They're not sure why, but one of the theories is the interference of "cosmic rays":

There is a constrant stream of high-energy galactic and solar radiation interacting with the Earth�s upper atmosphere. This interaction creates a cascade of secondary particles. Some of the secondary particles, in particular neutrons, can affect aircraft avionics systems.

Not much poor Qantas can do about cosmic rays, right? Well, apparently they're making some software changes and are hoping that'll solve the issue. So are we.

Related Stories:
· Cosmic Rays May Have Caused Qantas Jet's Plunge [The Age]
· Qantas Shakes Up Passengers [Jaunted]
· Beer Ban On Selected Qantas Flights Is Un-Australian [Jaunted]

[Photo: Shaun Garrity]

Jaunted

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