Upon hearing this, I like other frequent fliers, wondered would I have been able to exhibit such sangfroid? There are 700 of these work horse aircraft in service. Any of us could find ourselves in a horrifying situation as cabin flooring gives way and a section of the ceiling collapses. And the whole thing lasted for an hour until a white-knuckle landing in Manila. An hour is a long time, an eternity under those conditions.

One passenger commented that they had no control over what was happening so it just seemed best to ‘sit tight.' 350 lucky passengers walked away from the plane to safety. And Quantas maintains it's reputation as the world's safest airline, never having lost a passenger! Apparently, Easy Jet, Ryan Air and Southwestern in the US carry more passengers than Quantas, and none of these three have had a fatal crash either. I say ‘chapeau' to all these safe carriers. And Bravo! To the courage of the surviors of that Quantas flight.

In contrast to this heroic flight, I read with disgust of the terror two women on a charter flight from Greece imposed on fellow passengers. The two 26 and 27-year olds, who were attacking flight attendants with vodka bottles, subjected the flight to a unruly hell until the pilot decided to land in Frankfurt and have them taken off. Who do these drunken idiots think they are? Isn't there enough to worry about without this sort of insanity.