Qantas has incorporated more complex stall warning recovery events in recurrent lesson plans for its Boeing 747 flight crews. These improvements follow an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigation into an in-flight upset involving a Boeing 747-438 110 km SE of Hong Kong International Airport on 7 April 2017. This is the subject a report by the ATSB, Investigation number AO-2017-044.

While descending toward Hong Kong, air traffic control instructed the flight crew to hold at a waypoint. When entering the holding pattern, the aircraft’s aerodynamic stall warning stick shaker activated a number of times and the aircraft experienced multiple oscillations of pitch angle and vertical acceleration.

During the upset, some passengers and cabin crewmembers struck the cabin ceiling and furnishings, sustaining minor injuries.