Six hurt in A330 test flight

SIX people are in hospital, two with serious injuries, today a depressurisation incident during the test flight of an Airbus A330 to be delivered to Air Mauritius today, firefighters said.
European manufacturer Airbus said two of the 10 people on board the wide-body commercial passenger plane at the time of the test suffered various kinds of injuries and four were undergoing tests for health problems due to the depressurisation.

The six were in a hospital in the southwestern city of Toulouse where Airbus is based.

A company spokeswoman said two people would remain under observation in hospital Wednesday night after having been "unconscious for a while".

Firefighters said those hospitalised were suffering from spine injuries and ear drum problems.

"Because of a sudden depressurisation the pilot pulled the plane down quickly, in line with procedure, causing those on board standing or walking about to fall," said Airbus.

The plane landed normally at Toulouse-Blagnac airport.

On November 15 an Airbus A340-600 carrying out engine tests crashed into an anti-noise barrier at Toulouse airport, injuring 10 people.

Two of the passengers and another person on the ground were seriously injured.

That four-engined plane was destined for Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad Airways. It can carry between 380 and 472 passengers depending on the model.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,2 ... om=mostpop

Was it a regular decompression or an explosive decompression? Bad week for Airbus!

If it were an explosive decompression, they'd most likely be talking about people getting sucked out of the hole, rather than falling down.