Reason for emergency landing 'should be apparent soon'

Investigators should be able to quickly pinpoint the basic reason behind the Qantas plane's emergency landing in the Philippines, aviation experts said today.

But they warned that a full understanding of the terrifying incident may take much longer.

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Although there has been no immediate evidence that terrorism played a part in the incident, investigators will want to look at anything that points towards a deliberately-planted explosive device.

The probe will also concentrate on whether there was a non-criminal explosion of some kind or whether the incident was sparked by something breaking on the plane.

"It should become apparent fairly quickly if something exploded or something broke," said Kieran Daly, editor of internet news service Air Transport Intelligence.

"When things like this happens there is always the thought that it might be a criminal case. Investigators will also want to see if something like a gas cylinder exploded or that something broke for whatever reason.

"There may also have been some form of structural failure. Sometimes with accidents, the essential gist of the cause is very quickly known, but then it can take a much longer period of time to know exactly what happened."

Mr Daly cited the case of the British Airways Boeing 777 crash-land drama at Heathrow in January. UK air accident investigators quickly worked out that there was a fuel-supply problem and have already issued four reports.

However, it is likely to be some time before there is a final report in which the investigators will be able to say exactly why power was lost.