'If I was in a dire situation on a plane I would want to know Rich was up front'

A MODEL of an Airbus A380 aircraft stands among the family photographs in the comfortably large Northbridge home where the phone was ringing when Coral Champion de Crespigny returned from her hair appointment.

The voice on the phone was from Qantas saying not to worry, her husband Richard's plane had trouble but he was on the ground and safe.

In control ... Richard Champion de Crespigny, right, with his son Alexander and father, Peter, last year.Credit: Peter Rae

Thanking her caller, Mrs Champion de Crespigny turned on the TV and watched in mounting confusion as a newsreader announced reports of a plane crash on an island off Singapore. ''You double-take, but there was really no moment of doubt. I felt Rich was all right,'' she said.

''He's such a smart guy. If I was in a dire situation on a plane I would want to know Rich was up front.''

Second Qantas mid-air emergency

The Qantas captain Richard Champion de Crespigny has become a national hero overnight after displaying extraordinary grace under pressure and bringing his A380 into an emergency landing.

The fuss seems so distant from the calm of his home. His wife remembers the lionisation of the British Airways captain Eric Moody when his Boeing 747 engines stopped after flying through volcanic ash in 1982, and the US Airways pilot Chesley ''Sully'' Sullenberger for landing his crippled plane on the Hudson River last year. ''But Rich, a hero? He's slightly dumbfounded. I mean, he just lives to fly. Everyday he goes to work he's got a smile on his face,'' she 0said. ''It's not because he's leaving me, it's because he loves his job.''

A cousin of the mining magnate Robert Champion de Crespigny, the Qantas captain was born in Melbourne in 1957. He developed a passion for flying when he was a teenager but it was not until army manoeuvres damaged the family hobby farm outside Healesville that he reached for the sky.

''His dad, Pete, asked if Rich could be taken on a guided tour of Point Cook RAAF base,'' his wife said. ''That was it. His life opened up before him.''

He joined the RAAF, flew Caribou aircraft, Iroquois helicopters and Macchi trainers. He was aide-de-camp to the governors-general Ninian Stephen and Zelman Cowen before joining Qantas in 1986.

''Rich was promoted to captain to fly the A380 when they arrived,'' Mrs Champion de Crespigny said. ''He loves the aircraft so much he's writing a book about it.''