Qantas update

What: Qantas flight QF30 Boeing 747 jumbo jet en route from from London to Melbourne
Where: international airport in Manila
When: July 25, 2008
Who: 365 passengers and crew
Why:Part of fuselage blew off in mid flight leaving a 10-foot diameter hole in the forward cargo area.. The flight crew performed emergency procedures as the plane plunged 6,000 metres. Debris flew through the cabin but there were no injuries.


Update 2
Australian Air Transport Safety Board investigators are focusing on whether an oxygen bottle used for emergency back-up for the cockpit exploded mid-flight, tearing a three-metre (10-foot) hole in the Boeing's fuselage.

• In 1988an 18- foot roof section of a 737 tore off during an Aloha Airlines flight at 24,000 feet
  
  
• In 2002, a China Airlines 747-200 broke apart in flight at 34,900 feet, and all 225 passengers and crew were killed or presumed dead. Taiwan's Aviation Safety Council concluded that a rear fuselage section had failed
  

Update-1Experts say that a 747 is like a battleship that can fly with all sorts of holes, but a lack of maintenance will eventually bring about tragedies that will be blamed on metal fatigue that maintenance does not catch or probably doesn’t bother to check.

However, in February there were forum postings discussing the rust and corrosion found during a maintenance check on the aircraft, a 17-year-old Qantas Boeing 747, at Avalon airport in Melbourne.

What good is the maintenance check if the findings are inadequately dealt with? Because if the news is correct, THIS maintenance search may have found the problem--they just didn't deal with it adequately.