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Cockpit flight recording lost during Qantas mid-air crisis

An Australian transport official says investigators will not be able to review the cockpit voice recording of a Qantas jet's mid-air crisis because it was overwritten as the
crew made a harrowing emergency landing.

Neville Blyth says the focus into what caused a hole in the 747-400's fuselage last Friday continues to narrow on a missing oxygen tank that appears to have burst while the plane was flying at 8,800 metres over the South China Sea last Friday.

With air rushing out of the hole, the pilots made a rapid descent, then an emergency landing in Manila, Philippines last week.

Blyth said the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder arrived Monday in Canberra, where officials discovered that the period when the crew was dealing with massive depressurization had been recorded over.

The device operates on a two-hour loop.

A full search of the plane has yielded no trace of the missing cylinder, leading officials to conclude that it probably exited the plane through the fuselage.

Blyth showed reporters another tank that was stored next to the missing No. 4 cylinder. It was still in place and showed no signs of damage. The cylinders are used to provide oxygen to the passengers and crew during a high-altitude emergency.