Oxygen bottles 'main focus' of Qantas Airline Accident investigation

Qantas has been told to inspect all the oxygen bottles on its fleet of 747-400 jets.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has ordered Qantas to do the checks because an exploding oxygen cylinder might have caused the hole in the side of a plane flying from Hong Kong last week.

CASA spokesman Peter Gibson says the inspections will start almost immediately.

“Obviously the investigation team are yet to really get underway much of their investigation so we don’t categorically know what caused this accident, but we do know that there were two oxygen bottles in that area, we do know that they’re a main focus of the investigation, and we think it’s prudent to put safety first, to get inspections done now rather than waiting any longer,” he said.

Qantas has confirmed that it will inspect the oxygen bottles, and says the program will be completed by Friday.

Passengers complained about malfunctioning oxygen masks during an emergency landing in Manila, after a hole was blown in the fuselage of a Qantas flight on Friday.

Mr Gibson says the investigation into the accident will look into the claims.