Jumbo jet sinking at outback museum

There has been so much rain in parts of outback Queensland, a Boeing 747 on display at the Qantas Founders Museum in Longreach, in the state's central-west, is now sinking into the ground.

The museum says the nose wheel of the jumbo jet is tied onto a large concrete block but it has sunk about 20 centimetres into what appears to be an old underground fuel tank.

Museum general manager Rodney Seccombe says the rain has been a problem.

"When we've had rain - it's obviously wet the soil in around where the tank was - it's sunk about eight inches in the last lot of rain," he said.

"The block of concrete is about 30 tonnes in itself and the whole aircraft is about 180 tonnes, but we are only talking about the nose wheel at the moment."

He says they have now got a support under the plane while they work out how to fix the sinking wheel.

"It's just that everything is so big and so heavy that you do have to think outside of the circle as to how you are going to do something," he said.

"We are going to have to have soil tests done and all that sort of thing.

"The actual foundation weighs 30 tonnes and we've got the plane on top of that as well, so it's not something we can just pick up and move.

"We've really got to work out how we are going to do it but as it is, it is quite safe."

http://www.abc.net.au