AirAsiaX Delays/Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

D7215 on Wednesday 8 June 2016, the 0935 hours MEL to KUL was airborne at 1000 but is expected to be about 42 minutes late when it arrives at 1637. 9M-XBC is the usual A333.

 

[Melburnian1]

The 1030 hours D7223 (1030 hours day flight, SYD to KUL) took off at 1134. Arrival with A333 9M-XBC should be at approximately 1806, 36 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Thursday 16 June D7223 from SYD was airborne at 1134 with arrival expected at 1836, notably half an hour slower than the 10 June similar delay. Aircraft on 16 June is A333 9M-XBB.

 

[Melburnian1]

D7223 ex SYD was delayed again today (Friday 17 June) so should arrive KUL at around 1810 hours, 40 minutes behind schedule. 9M-XXC is the 'craft.

 

[Melburnian1]

The Monday 20 June D7212 (1010 KUL - MEL) took off at 1127 and is delayed, with likely arrival being at 2053 hours, 53 minutes late. A333 9M-XXU is the aircraft.

 

[Melburnian1]

D7223, the 1055 SYD - KUL on Sunday 26 June took off at 1203 so A333 9M-XXV should arrive 85 minutes late at 1855. Speed is only 724 kilometres an hour so there must be a headwind.

 

[Melburnian1]

The Sunday 3 July 2016 D7223 from SYD to KUL departed 57 minutes late at 1152 and with A333 9M-XXM as its aircraft should arrive at about 1832, 62 minutes behind.

 

[straitman]

D7215 from MEL -KUL is delayed this morning due a cabin crew member being injured. (No idea what/how). A/c is fully loaded and waiting for the Dr to clear the member or for a replacement to arrive. Estimated delay is 45 min.
Revised delay is now 2 hrs as we wait for a replacement crew member.
... and hedging toward a bit longer!

 

[Melburnian1]

D7215 from MEL -KUL is delayed this morning due a cabin crew member being injured. (No idea what/how). A/c is fully loaded and waiting for the Dr to clear the member or for a replacement to arrive. Estimated delay is 45 min. Revised delay is now 2 hrs as we wait... and hedging toward a bit longer!

straitman turned out to be a master of understatement with D7215 taking off from MEL on Monday 11 July at 1231, about two hours and 35 minutes late; arrival in KUL is predicted as about 1935 hours, three hours and 40 minutes late with the winds a contributing factor to the loss of time enroute. 9M-XXS is the A333.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Saturday 16 July, D7220, the 1000 KUL - SYD was in the sky at 1034 which is only about 15 minutes late. However arrival of A333 9M-XXZ will not be until about 2038 tonight, 33 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

Wednesday 20 July has D7223 (1055 SYD - KUL, A333 9M-XXJ) having taken off at 1204 with an hour late arrival expected at 1830 tonight.

 

[Melburnian1]

D7206 (2355 hours Wednesday 20 July KUL - OOL) took off at 0028 on Thursday but has lost a bit more time with Thursday 21 July arrival of A333 9M-XXS likely at about 1025, half an hour late.

 

[jb747]

Here's an interesting one...https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/9m-xxd#ab0da5d

 

[jb747]

Well, obviously nobody has looked at it all that closely, so I'll say why I find it interesting.

It's an engine shutdown. That's pretty much shown by the intermediate altitude chosen after the turn. I will admit that I knew that from other sources.

A twin with an engine shut down is in an emergency situation. You really should land at the first available airfield. There are a couple of provisos to that, but they are not commercial ones. Curfews also can be disregarded. Melbourne should not be the first choice. Third perhaps.

The wind on the night in the area was roughly westerly at 50 knots or so. That fits in reasonably with the ground speed shown before the turn (424 knots), and gives a cruising IAS of about 260 knots, and mach .82....which would be about right.

The descent is started at 1349 (perhaps a few seconds earlier). Prior to that, from 1344 to 1348 (and a bit) the aircraft has maintained height, but has turned from a track of 307º to 284º. Not a big turn, and it would not dramatically affect the ground speed (perhaps 10 knots). But, the speed has decayed from that initial 424 knots, back to 344 knots. So, I'd expect a g/s of 414, but we're actually 70 knots below that. So, that means that the IAS/mach has reduced. Now, given that you've shut an engine down at altitude, and the aircraft is not capable of maintaining that height on one engine, that isn't unexpected, but how much speed has actually disappeared? Playing with the calculator a bit more, I get a TAS of 390 knots, which converts to a mach of .67, and IAS of about 212 knots. That is very slow.

It will be interesting to see if the ATSB look at it at all, and if so, what they make of it.

 

[Melburnian1]

jb747, many thanks. This has already been mentioned in today's (Friday 19 August) 'The Australian': the ATSB has indeed commenced an investigation. The article mentioned how there were 231 passengers on board A333 9M-XXD. The media report may explain why nobody commented on here, but many have or will read your interesting contribution.

The media report suggested that the turn was made 445 kilometres southwest of ASP. Apparently it landed at MEL at 0159 - local time (AEST) not UTC - on Wednesday 17 August.

If Melbourne was your 'perhaps third choice', would ASP have been your first and AYQ (if suitable) or ADL your second? As far as I know MQL has a runway that is undergoing or has undergone a $10 million Federally funded upgrade because the VA several times a week B738 has been allegedly creating a fair bit of wear and tear in layman's language. Happy to be corrected but is MQL unsuitable due to lack of sufficient runway length or load bearing for an A333? Are BHQ and OLP also unsuitable for an A333?

At least one AFF member stated quite a few months ago that AirAsia's variants were all on his 'banned list' due to what he suggested or implied were poorly trained or insufficient hours of coughpit experience technical crew. Coupled with the above comments that this was an 'emergency situation', food for thought. JQ recently had an engine shutdown as well although obviously not identical, and on a different airframe (B788 VH-VKK) that was discussed in the JQ delays/ cancellations thread of AFF, and that was also described as an 'emergency' by one of AFF's esteemed contributors. On that occasion, the aircraft sat at GUM for 10 days (7 to 17 August) while an engine changeover occurred.

 

[jb747]

The runway options in that area are Alice, Katherine (RAAF), Darwin, Adelaide, Melbourne. We don't have actual weathers for any of them, and it's quite possible that affected decision making to a degree. Nevertheless, Alice is a very nice option.

 

[Melburnian1]

The ATSB has said that this report will be issued 'within months.' That will mark a change from the JQ/TT wing collision at MEL that took more than two years for a report to become public, a ludicrous amount of time for such a small (though costly to VA, which was at fault) incident.

 

[Melburnian1]

D7215, the Sunday 21 August 0935 MEL - KUL was not in the air until 1011 and hence will pull in at around 1653, 58 minutes late with A333 9M-XBA as the taskmaster.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Sunday 9 October, D7222 from KUL to SYD is forecast to be 45 minutes late arriving at 1130. Aircraft is A333 9M-XXT.

 

[Melburnian1]

Wednesday 12 October 2016 sees D7214, the redeye from KUL, arriving in MEL at 1020, an hour late. Aircraft is A333 9M-XBA.