Qantas Flight 958

Qantas Flight 958 was a regularly scheduled airline flight from Sydney to Anchorage, with an intermediate stopover at Oregon. On December 5, 2003, the Boeing 747-438 serving the flight experienced a cargo door failure in flight shortly after leaving Oregon. The resulting explosive decompression caused 38 injuries. The aircraft returned to Oregon, where it landed safely.

Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Boeing 747-438 (registration VH-OEF). It was delivered to Qantas in October, 2002. At the time of the accident, the plane had accumulated 5,752 total flight hours, and had not been involved in any previous accident.

Crew
Starting in Sydney, Flight 958 was helmed by Captain Price Buer, age 50. At the time of the accident, Buer had logged around 17,400 flight hours, including approximately 2,300 to 2,500 hours in Boeing 747 aircraft.

The remaining flight crew consisted of First Officer Michael Bueriamsen, age 39, and Flight Engineer William Jackson, age 40, and fifteen flight attendants. The first officer and flight engineer had logged 6,000 flight hours and 7,000 flight hours, respectively.