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Qantas jet in emergency landing in Japan, 9 hurt

Posted on: Saturday, 20 August 2005, 23:40 CDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Qantas jet made an emergency landing in Japan early on Sunday after what was most probably a false smoke alarm, and nine people were injured when they used chutes to escape, police and the airline said.

The Perth-bound Airbus A330, carrying 178 passengers and 13 crew, landed in the central Japanese city of Osaka at about 1 a.m. local time (1620 GMT), shortly after leaving Tokyo, Qantas said in a statement released on its Web site.

"The Osaka Control Tower reported smoke on landing so an emergency evacuation was declared as a precaution and emergency slides deployed," Qantas said.

The nine passengers were injured during the evacuation and were taken to hospital.

"Nine people were taken away by ambulance. They were hurt when they tried to escape using (emergency) chutes," a police official at Kansai airport in Osaka said.

Kyodo news agency said a Japanese woman had suffered a pelvic fracture. The others, who included two Australians and a Chinese, sustained minor injuries.

Early inspections of the aircraft had shown no sign of smoke or fire and the airline believed the incident was due to a faulty reading from a sensor in the cargo hold.

"There's been no sign of fire or smoke at all," Qantas spokesman Lloyd Quartermaine said.

Police were planning to inspect the plane to check whether a fire had actually broken out on the plane, he said.

Source: REUTERS

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