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This from todays news.com.au

Did laptop cause plane plunge?

By Michael Madigan, Nicole Cox and Peter Morley

October 09, 2008 01:55am


Passengers to be quizzed on computers
Safety officials begin investigation
wireless mouse sent another plane off-course

PASSENGERS will be quizzed on whether they were using computers or electronic equipment before a Qantas aircraft plunged hundreds of metres.

One has told of how he heard a loud bang followed by the screams and groans of passengers being thrown about the cabin and slammed against the roof as the Airbus went into a steep dive off Western Australia on Tuesday.

Pictures: First look inside Qantas jet
Turbulence: Babies hit plane roof

Safety officials yesterday began investigating how the aircraft travelling from Singapore to Perth suddenly shot up 300 feet before pitching earthward after signalling to its pilots "irregularities" in its elevator control system.

The possibility passengers using electronic equipment including computers affected the aircraft's navigation system has not been ruled out, The Courier-Mail reported.

A passenger clicking a wireless mouse mid-flight recently sent a Qantas jumbo jet off course on a three-degree bank, an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report revealed.

"Certainly in our discussions with passengers that is exactly the sort of question we will be asking – 'Were you using a computer?'," an Australian Transport Safety Bureau spokesman said yesterday.

Director of aviation safety investigation Julian Walsh said: "We don't know, and we don't fully understand the dynamics of this event.

"Certainly there was a period of time where the aircraft performed of its own accord."

A passenger described how the smooth flight suddenly turned into a nightmare around 1pm when he heard a loud bang.

"All of a sudden there was a big bang – boom – and I found myself up in the ceiling for one to two seconds and then I fell down," said grandfather Yip How Wong.

"I fell down on the walkway a few rows from my seat. I couldn't get up."

Up to 40 passengers and crew were injured when the plane was cruising at 37,000 feet about 177km north of Carnarvon.

The injured, including about 20 suffering serious spinal injuries, broken bones or lacerations, were taken to hospital after the pilot sent out a mayday distress call then made an emergency landing at an old military strip at Learmonth about 40km from Exmouth.

SES volunteer Jackie Tapper, 30, was one of the first to start treating the injured passengers on the aircraft.

"Inside the plane it was like a tornado had gone off," she said.

"On the ceiling where people had hit their heads there was chunks of hair still there. There were a lot of people bleeding so we had to bandage them."

http://www.news.com.au/travel/galler...013959,00.html