Sydney: Qantas Airways said today it will financially compensate all passengers who were on board a plane that made a terrifying plunge this week, tossing people around the cabin and injuring dozens.

Every passenger will receive an airfare refund and a travel voucher equal to the cost of a flight between Australia and London, a Qantas spokesman said. The airline also planned to help pay medical expenses for injured passengers, said the spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity because of company policy. More than 40 people were taken to hospitals, with 14 seriously injured after the A330-300 briefly plunged nose-first during a Tuesday flight from Singapore to the western Australian city of Perth.

Qantas, which has been beset by a string of safety problems in recent months, said it was cooperating with an investigation by the Air Transport Safety Bureau and also conducting its own. ATSB investigators said yesterday that instruments aboard the A330-300 warned pilots of a glitch in the stabilisation system just before the sudden altitude changes.

The agency said it was too early to determine the specific cause of the accident, but that it would issue a preliminary report on it within 30 days. "It was horrendous, absolutely gruesome, terrible, the worst experience of my life," said passenger Jim Ford, of Perth.

The plane, carrying 303 passengers and 10 crew, was at 11,000 metres and nearing its destination when the incident occurred.

Source : PTI