First of all: Qantas have had more "incidents" than that. The Bangkok mishap was the first "accident" (substantial damage to the jet) since they started flying

First of all: Qantas have had more "incidents" than that. The Bangkok mishap was the first "accident" (substantial damage to the jet) since they started flying jet airliners. A Qantas pilot explained the details of how it could have happened. If certain pre-landing checks were not done, and the module was missing, its Plausible for non-functioning autoland in a 747-200 to go unnoticed. Accidently going off the side of the runway pavement could result in little damage, assuming the jet stayed controllable.