ATSB can't rule out another in-flight cylinder blast
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An exploding oxygen cylinder blew a hole in the jet's fuselage. (ABC)
Air safety investigators say they cannot rule out another oxygen cylinder exploding during a flight, similar to the incident which happened on a Qantas flight in July.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has released its preliminary report into the explosion of an oxygen tank on a Qantas flight near Hong Kong which tore a hole in the plane's fuselage.
Julian Walsh from the ATSB says investigators are still not sure why the cylinder exploded.
"I mean anything's possible," he said. "It's certainly a rare event [but] no one can discount these things happening.
"What we are trying to do is trying to find out what mechanism could have caused this so we can put into place some precautionary measures."
Qantas says the plane involved in the incident will be back in the air in November.
A statement from Qantas says it will cost around $10 million to repair the aircraft and have it back in service.
Mr Walsh says based on the current evidence there is little Qantas could have done to prevent the incident.
"There is nothing at this stage the ATSB can identify that could have been done to prevent this because we don't really know why the bottle failed and that's the key question for the investigation," he said.
Mr Walsh says several factors are still being examined, including the operation of oxygen masks in the cabin and the design and manufacture of the exploding oxygen tank.
"We don't really understand at this stage what the failure mechanism of the cylinder is, but it is clear the rupture in the fuselage has been caused by the failure of this number four cylinder," he said.
"That's the focus of our attentions is on this cylinder."
