Passengers on a US flight which made an emergency landing at a military base after a sudden drop in cabin pressure took dramatic pictures of a hole in the aircraft.

Australian investigators today began examining a stricken Qantas jumbo jet that made a emergency landing in the Philippines with a giant hole in its fuselage.

GENESIS LEASE, the Shannon-based aircraft leasing firm, said net profits rose by more than a third in 2007.

The wing that fell off a seaplane before it crashed, killing all 20 people on board, had cracks in the main support beam that had probably gone unseen for a long time, US federal investigators said today.