Dog Grounds Qantas Airbus

Fortunately, a happy ending to this story from Australia
courtesy the Courier-Mail…

An international Qantas jet was grounded after a dog in the cargo hold escaped from its cage and began snacking on parts of the aircraft’s interior.
The animal chewed through electrical wiring and panels so tough that they are difficult to cut with a knife.

The first indication of trouble occurred when the Airbus A330 left Auckland bound for Melbourne on December 7.

A warning light in the cockpit indicated problems with the auxiliary power unit - a small jet in the tail that supplies electricity for various systems when the aircraft is on the ground.

As the engine had been shut down after takeoff there was no risk to the aircraft. But when ground handlers opened the cargo hold in Melbourne they were confronted with an angry, distressed dog.

An inspection revealed that after somehow getting out of its transportation cage the animal chewed through the wiring loom to the unit, Qantas reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

An aviation engineering source said: "The dog ripped out several wires which set off the cockpit warning and then it had a go at a number of electrical units in the rear of the plane.

"Under duress the animal obviously went nuts biting through anything that it came across.

“I do not know the breed but the dog had to be fairly big with a big bite to damage cargo hold panels that are as tough as billy goat boots - it is difficult to even cut through this material with a knife.”

The source said the plane had not been in any danger and probably the most surprised people were the ground workers who opened the cargo hold to be greeted by the dog.

It could only have been Marley!

Crazy analogy.

Dog bite damage is not done by the “cutting edge” of their teeth, but by shear force of their bite.

I’d suspect the panels were not designed to withstand the bone crushing force of 200 to 400 average PSI of their bite.

:question: So the average of the average PSI is 300 :imp:

Depends on if it’s Marley or German Shepard, or Doberman, or Poodle. (random breeds selected)

Generally speaking, a Poodle may be closer to the average 200 PSI, Marley has the looks below 200 (licking probably induces more PSI) :stuck_out_tongue: , and a dobey probably would be closer to the average 400 PSI.

Is it just me or does it seem like Qantas is always having some problem though this is the craziest I’ve seen yet.

chihuahua pitbull mix ankle biter from hell :open_mouth: :smiley:

yea im thinkin of not taking the national airline of australia if i ever get back to
Sydney. 747 suffers severe decompression, dog goes ape and coould have caused serious problems. I agree craziest thing yet. keep tuned in :open_mouth: :smiley:

Many years ago while working the ramp in Vegas I opened the rear bin door of a DAL 757 only to be greeted by a very friendly Rottweiler sitting outside of his kennel. I closed the door and called a supervisor for assistance. Still not sure how he escaped?

Maybe it was Hooch from the Tom Hanks movie - Turner and Hooch. He already destroyed a car so he decided to move onto destroying a plane.

Believe me, a Lab can destroy just about anthing it wants.

I have a black Lab that loves to chew (not on anything important so far) and any toy I got for her was destroyed in minutes.

One day I bought one of those recycled tire chew toys and cam e home snickering thinking I found the bet of her. Well I gave it to her and snickered to my wife and I be damned if she tore it into hundreds of pieces in a matter of minutes.

I believe Brother, I believe!

We had a Yellow Lab named Tristan that ate his fair share of things he shouldn’t have, including a mink stole.


Nothing as bad as our friend’s Black Lab however, he stripped all the molding off the walls over the course of a few weeks! And ate it.