AFP, MANILA - A Qantas Boeing 747 flying to Melbourne made an emergency landing in Manila on Friday after a dramatic mid-air rupture that punched a "gaping hole" in its fuselage, officials and passengers said.

Stunned passengers reported how the jumbo, which had taken off from London and made a stopover in Hong Kong, plunged nearly 20,000 feet (6,000 metres) in what one said was an "absolutely terrifying" ordeal.
 
An urgent investigation is underway into what punched a hole of about three metres (10 feet) in diameter into the fuselage near the right wing.
 
A Qantas spokeswoman said the plane, carrying 346 passengers and 19 crew, was now undergoing an inspection on the ground in Manila, where luggage could be clearly seen jutting out of the hole.
 
"There was a terrific boom, and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into first (class) and the oxygen masks dropped down," June Kane, a passenger from Melbourne, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
 
"We were told that one of the rear doors, a hole had blown into it, but I've since looked at the plane and there's a gigantic gaping hole in the plane."
 
"It was absolutely terrifying, but I have to say everyone was very calm," she added, speaking from the Philippine capital.

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