Plane Bound for KL But Ended Up in Melbourne Instead. Here’s Why

Yes, you heard us right. A flight bound for KL landed in Melbourne, and no. It’s not for the reason you’ll expect.

The Flight Captain Entered The Wrong Coordinates

It was found that when the captain was setting up the aircraft’s flight management and guidance system, he omitted one zero when he entered the plane’s longitude.

This caused the navigation system to think that the plane was near the South African city of Cape Town.

Pre-flight checks didn’t reveal the error and it was only noticed after the aircraft flew in the wrong direction.

It was also found that the plane was not equipped with the latest flight management system that could have prevented the mistake.

Flight Crew Ignore Warnings

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the system gave off a warning “Terrain! Terrain!” immediately after takeoff which means the plane was too close to the ground.

However, the flight crew ignored the warning as there was nothing to see in sight.

It was only when air traffic controllers alerted them to the situation that the flight crew realised something was wrong.

The navigation system and equipment displayed the message: GPS Primary Lost.

Plane lost Autopilot and Auto-Thrust Capability

Things got from bad to worse.

Soon after, the plane lost autopilot and auto-thrust and the crew decided to bring the plane back to Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport.

However, they had to change their decision due to bad weather and landed in Melbourne with the help of air traffic controllers two hours after take off.

Flight Crew Attempted to Troubleshoot

Investigations found that the flight crew did try to rectify the situation, but did not have the expertise to do so.

“Combined with limited guidance from the available checklists, this resulted in further errors by the flight crew in the diagnosis and actioning of flight deck switches.”

The incident was reported as “equipment malfunction”. After checks were conducted and no errors found, the plane took off from Melbourne

After checks were conducted and no errors were found, the plane took off from Melbourne with the same captain and first officer and travelled safely to Kuala Lumpur.

Air Asia to Develop New Training Manual for it’s Flight Crews

The airline has since developed a new training manual for its flight crews to prevent a situation like this from taking place again.

Featured Image: smh.com.au

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com