QANTAS LUCKY ESCAPE (AGAIN) AS CREW BATTLE COCKPIT FIRE ON A330-200 – IN ECO OF JETSTAR EMERGENCY

A Qantas flight from the Philippines to Sydney yesterday was forced to land in Cairns after a cockpit fire. Small flames on the flight deck of the Airbus A330-200, were initially put out by the automatic safety systems, but within minutes the fire began again, forcing the three pilots, who were wearing oxygen masks, to use an extinguisher. Qantas said the blaze was caused by an electrical problem in the system that heats the windscreen, the same fault that forced a Jetstar A330-200 en route from Japan to Australia to land on the Pacific island of Guam in 2009. One