Air Asia - wrong turn after take off

[Radi K]

Noticed that XAX223 (Air Asia flight 223 SYD-KUL) got airborne off Rwy 16R and made a LEFT turn today straight across the path of RWY 16L without a clearance. There was a QF 737 about to take off and his clearance was cancelled and this resulted in a low level go-around of a VA 737

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/XAX223/history/20150310/0055Z/YSSY/WMKK

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/VOZ938/history/20150310/0001Z/YBBN/YSSY

Anyone else see this?

The Air Asia aircraft seems to be on a track way south of course now?

[Rowan McKeever]

FR24 puts it in the same position as flightaware... just to the west of Corowa.

Does their ADL flight still operate? Possible it's gone u/s and the SYD-KUL is diverting for stranded ADL pax? Or similar for MEL?

XAX223 opb 9M-XXM today

[Grahame Hutchison]

The Air Asia aircraft seems to be on a track way south of course now?


"They are probably heading for the naughty corner".

[David O.]

Looks to be heading to Melbourne at this stage, maybe something mechanical?

[Dan Hammond]

Showing up on the Melbourne arrivals board

[Stephen Brown]

FR24 is showing some real screwy tracking on this aircraft??? Something must be up?

[David O.]

Listening to LiveATC and they did a go-around at Melbourne. I'm definitely curious as to what is going on there.

[Radi K]

Just did a missed approach in MEL, requesting vectors back for a visual approach Rwy 16

Requesting assistance from company after landing.

[Rowan McKeever]

Same, will be interesting to know what's going on. If it's mechanical, is there a reason they wouldn't just go back to SYD? Spare seats for some pax on a MEL-KUL later today, maybe?

[Stephen Brown]

Don't know whats wrong with my FR24. It shows the aircraft in the middle of the Southern ocean, not on approach to Melbourne

[Zac M]

Its on the ground in MEL.

[Radi K]

Appears to have landed safely. The tower switched on the high intensity approach lights to ensure the crew spotted the runway. Looks to have been some avionics or instrumentation problem.

[Zac M]

I noticed the aircraft was getting picked up on M-LAT for a while rather than ADS-B. An avionics issue could explain some of the issues with FR24!

[Stephen Brown]

Flightaware is showing it has departed again, has it?? FR24 shows nothing.

[Robert.M]

Think the transponder went a little nuts.
http://www.crowingstudios.com/images/aircraft/Screen%20Shot%202015-03-10%20at%202.20.57%20PM.png

FR24 flight play back (http://www.flightradar24.com/2015-03-10/01:19/12x/XAX223/5b6da84)

[Rowan McKeever]

According to flightaware, is due out to KUL at 1640L.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/9MXXM

[Rowan McKeever]

Think the transponder went a little nuts.
http://www.crowingstudios.com/images/aircraft/Screen%20Shot%202015-03-10%20at%202.20.57%20PM.png

FR24 flight play back (http://www.flightradar24.com/2015-03-10/01:19/12x/XAX223/5b6da84)

Wow they made Africa in good time, didn't they! :D

[Sarah C]

For what it is worth:

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/03/10/14/58/xax223-diverted-to-melbourne

[Robert.M]

AirAsia X flight from Sydney to Malaysia makes emergency landing in Melbourne (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-10/airasia-flight-xax223-makes-emergency-landing-in-melbourne/6294980)

[Hugh Jarse]

I wonder what new operational restrictions will surface at YSSY as a result?

[Nigel C]

Interesting that they chose Melbourne due forecast storms in Sydney. I didn't have a close look at the airport forecast yesterday, but they were only predicting storms to form out west and not make it near the coast due to weak steering winds the last time I had checked.


Aside from physically pushing the control stick left, what would have made the aircraft turn left on departure? Is autopilot typically engaged that soon after take-off on A330's? And if so, why didn't the crew recognise it and correct it before they cut across the 16L extended centerline?

[Grahame Hutchison]

Listening to the ATC archive, it sounds like they had about a 40 degree variation between their true heading and what the FMC was showing. ATC questioned if they wanted to continue the flight with this navigation problem, which was via Richmond and planned route, however they requested radar vectors to try and sort things out.

[Philip Argy]

Would going to Melbourne avoid a fuel dump that would have been needed for a return to Sydney? Even allowing for nav problems, a left turn across the 16L centreline was pretty serious - I assume this will be an incident attracting ATSB investigative resource, so it will be interesting to follow.

[Rowan McKeever]

I'd imagine, as a LCC, the decision-maker wanted to make extra sure the aircraft wouldn't be stranded any longer than necessary.

[Hugh M.]

http://archive-server.liveatc.net/yssy/YSSY-Twr-Mar-10-2015-0100Z.mp3

There is the audio link for anyone interested. Incident is at 19 min 43 sec

[Philip Argy]

Thanks Hugh - that audio does not include comms with the wayward a/c - only comms with the cancelled T/O and G/A a/c. Is there another link for the (presumably) Departures frequency archive.

[David O.]

http://archive-server.liveatc.net/yssy/YSSY-App-Dep-Mar-10-2015-0100Z.mp3

Have a listen to this one, starts approximately similar time with ATC asking 'confirm heading'.

[Philip Argy]

Yes - that's the one - thanks, David. From about the 20 min mark you can monitor Xanadu 223 explaining problems with main nav display showing a 40 degree discrepancy with the secondary display and ATC confirming that secondary display seems to be correct. They try a couple of resets before deciding to abandon their planned route and head for Melbourne.

[Hugh Jarse]

I wonder if the IRU's were not aligned? It's happened in other aircraft before.

[Mick F]

I assume the E-Jet is similar Hugh, but the ADIRU's should take no longer than about 7mins to align. So assuming that they turned them on when they did cockpit setup, then they should have been aligned. That said, things do break! A faulty ADIRU should trigger an ECAM.

Mick

[Rowan McKeever]

Given D7's relatively short turnarounds, would they even shut systems like that down?

[Jayden Laing]

What would happen if the ADIRU's were turned off by accident on take off? Could this have led to the left hand turn (if the pilots weren't all that familiar with YSSY)?

[Todd Hendry]

Lots or stuff would've , or wouldn't have, happened.
They do a lot of things. More than an IRS on a 744 or 737.

Here's a link to the wiki stuff
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADIRU

[Mick F]

Given D7's relatively short turnarounds, would they even shut systems like that down?

The Airbus FCOM calls for the IRU's to be re-aligned on a crew change. Even if it's just a straight handover, you still re-align the IRU's. Especially given the length of the flight they'd be carrying out.

What would happen if the ADIRU's were turned off by accident on take off?

The only way you can turn off the ADIRU's is to physically reach up above the Captain and pull and turn them. So during a take off, that's virtually impossible unless absolutely entirely intentional.

A Captain told me a story about an event that occurred to a 747 operator at Sydney years ago, where the Captain decided to try and re-align the IRS's at the end of the runway just prior to take off to fix a problem. However they were told to line up straight away, which they did, and took off. Not a good result in the end, which required a return to land.

All sorts of things could have possibly happened or gone unserviceable. More likely to have gone unserviceable.

A difference of I think it's greater than 5 degree's between nav displays, will trigger an ECAM.

Mick

[Robert.M]

ATSB is investigating it (http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2015/aair/ao-2015-029.aspx).