DRAMA IN THE SKY HOW I SURVIVED!
As Richard de Crespigny recalls all too well Nov. 4, 2010 began like any other day. Yet, it was the day that would change the Qantas captain’s life forever.
Waking in his hotel on a beautiful Singapore morning, the Melbourne-born pilot with decades of flying experience could never have imagined the near-calamitous events that were to unfold mid-air just hours later.
“I’d been in Singapore overnight – I’d been positioned there to do this route check back to Sydney – and I was rested and looking forward to the flight,” says Richard, who began his career in the RAAF at age 17.
“It was 30 degrees Celsius, there was a very gentle breeze and clear skies. It was the perfect day to go flying.”
Following a textbook takeoff, the Airbus A380 Richard was captaining with 469 people on board suddenly suffered an explosion 7400 feet (2255 metres) above Singapore, setting off a chain of catastrophic engine failures.
For the next four hours, with just three partially operational engines and a plane at risk of massive combustion, Richard and his crew overcame challenge after seemingly insurmountable challenge to save the lives of every single passenger and crew member.
“When things went wrong, we had already prepared for that event by practising in the simulators,” he says. “We prepare for the worst and hope for the best, and we commit to a lifetime of continual learning,