Engine: BANG!
Passengers: *Crap pants*
Pilots: We had four engines. Now we have three, and one of those three appears to be misbehaving. It's on the same wing as the one that seems to have decided that today was a good day for a prank. Time to turn this thing around.
People on ground: There's metal falling from the sky, and a very large metal object up there that's an obvious source. Time to call the media.
Media: OMGTHERE'SACRAAAAAAAAAAAASH! The Boeing 747-380 Dreamliner was carrying 855 people, some of whom must have had some connection to the locality where this media was published.
Other media: Sometimes, things happen to airplanes and they don't crash.
Media #1: Shutupshutupshutup, we need stories now that the American people have fully articulated themselves via the voting booth ("I want government to pay my medical bills, educate my children, keep me safe, and if necessary, employ me; I also despite government employees, programs, and all taxes. Durrrrrrrr."). We'll report now, and ask questions later.
A.net calm poster subgroup: The plane actually is fine.
Qantas: Well, not exactly fine, but it's on the ground.
Well-connected a.net poster: Here's a picture.
Uninformed speculating a.net posters: It looks like an oxenschwanz failure resulting in a FADEC ramp-up, uncontained vernal equinox, possible disc failure, and was possibly caused by birds, contaminated fuel, Ryanair, or antitrust law.
Media #1: OMG IT MUST HAVE CRASHED.
First a.net posters who actually read the previous posts before posting: Wow, they landed the plane with a freakin' hole in the wing. That sure beats the alternative.
A.net know-it-alls: It's not a wing; it's a horizontal lifting apparatus, and uncontained engine failures are no big deal. You're an idiot for thinking a 3-year-old plane randomly blasting metal parts with no warning is a news event. You're idiots and "should of" read my mind before posting. By the way, I use big words and am smarter than you. I actually don't know anything, but I think I'm really smart.
Media #1: Time to copy and paste news stories from somewhere else. All is well. It was an A380, it landed. Here's a picture.
Stockbrokers: Crash? Crash? We're a bunch of highly-caffeinated 22-year-old Harvard know-it-alls! You bet we're gonna crash!
200 more a.net posters: We post without reading the thread. Was this an A380?
A.net poster posting blatantly wrong information: Posts 10 times.
A.net media poopers: I HATE THE MEDIA. THEIR SUCH IDIOTS. By the way, I know everything about everything. And I voted yesterday, so I'm better than you.
Qantas: What could make people panic and make this a bigger incident than needed? Oh, yes, ground the entire fleet.
Rolls-Royce spokesman: Hey, look over there!
More a.net morons: I'm never flying on an Airbus, a plane with Rolls Engines, anything with four engines, or anything with red paint on it again.
Rational a.net skeptic: I'm slightly worried by the thought of a 3-year-old engine raining debris and tearing a fairly large hole in the wing. It's good everything worked out.
Pilot worshippers: OMGTHEPILOTS. Now I need to go back to writing news stories.
Airbus bashers: The A380 is the worst plane ever.
Boeing bashers: Look, a BA 777 actually fell out of the sky a couple years ago. This is very relevant.
200 more a.netters: I don't actually have much to do but argue about nothing, so I will quote someone, misunderstand, get angry, rant, and then hit post.
A.net trivia mavens: Let's try to list every uncontained engine failure since 1946.
Moderators: Yeesh.
Passengers: Can we have new pants now? Or at least sell our stories to the media?
A.net angry know-it-alls: THERE'S NO U IN 'QANTAS!' THE MEDIA THERE SUCH IDIOTS!
Seriously, folks, it's a news story. It's neither a tragedy nor something to get worked up about. This is why planes are engineered to withstand issues. They do happen, they are scary for those involved, and we have professional crews who train extensively to deal with things like this. Basically, everything went great on QF32...except, you know, the whole bit about the uncontained engine failure.