Authorities that carried out the investigation into the gaping hole which appeared in the fuselage of a Qantas Airways jet on July 25th concluded that the incident might have been caused by an exploding oxygen bottle which caused a sudden pressure lost in the cabin of the 747.

The incident occurred as the Qantas 747-400 was on its way to Melbourne from Hong Kong. Pilots took the decision to conduct an emergency descent from 29,000 feet to 10,000 feet before landing safely in Manila in the Philippines. The jet had 365 people aboard and all of them laded in safe conditions.

According to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) which sent investigators to examine the plane, a part of one bottle had blown through the floor of the passenger compartment and hit a door handle moving it in the open position. However, there has never been any danger of the door opening said ATSB director Julian Walsh, Reuters reported. The door mantle had been designed to break if someone attempted to open the doors during the flight and that’s exactly how it happened, Walsh explained.

"The ATSB can confirm it appears that part of an oxygen cylinder and valve entered the passenger cabin" and hit a door handle, said Walsh, who described the incident as „an unique event.”

"Clearly the valve has traveled vertically through the floor of the aircraft, glanced with the door handle and impacted with the ceiling of the cabin," he added.

After the investigation reached the above-mentioned conclusions, Qantas Airlines has received the order to verify all oxygen cylinders on its fleet of 747s.

However, the investigation is not completed. The jet has been moved into a hangar in Manila as experts are examining data from the jet's flight data recorder, which shows flight QF30 made an emergency descent from 29,000 feet to 10,000 feet in about five minutes.