Classic British Flight Sim

The reason I mentioned that it was QANTAS crewed was the fact that the Lancastrians were shared with BOAC and the crews changed out depending on the service at that time. The Kangaroo Route to the UK had only recently been re-opened after the war.

So you could be pedantic and say it wasn't one of their planes that was lost - or even sadder and point out that the operating airline at the time was the half-BOAC owned QANTAS Empire Airways.

QANTAS was at the time the holding company for the Australian interest - and could probably do without this publicity as they are celebrating getting to 90.

Only KLM is older.

KLM is older but it's not really the same KLM but a part of Air France KLM

It is very nasty damage, but before one gets too excited about it it is worth remembering that the airbus wing quite plainly is capable of absorbing enormous amounts of damage, judging from the DHL A300 B4 OO-DLL which sustained missile damage in the Gulf. The photographs of that showed a wing which really had only the spars left, and those damaged , and yet it still landed safely albeit with total hydraulic failure and a fire . Uncontained engine failures are actually not that uncommon , which is precisely why you will find that most passenger aircraft have an armoured hoop in line with the major rotating parts