VA fog related emergency landing in Mildura

[RooFlyer]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Thanks aupirate.

Have you seen the comments of pilot jb747 on weather/fog/fuel at this thread: http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/your-questions/ask-the-pilot-30478-442.html

Its about page 437, but there is more detailed explanation of weather and fuel back a bit more as well.

 

[MarkD]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

As a bonus I now have status credits for BNE -ADL, BNE - Mildura, Mildura - MEL, MEL- ADL!

LOL I Hope you were in Business (Or at the least a flexi fare)

 

[aupirate]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Nah no such luck! El cheapo fares for me

 

[aupirate]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Thanks RooFlyer I`ll have a look, I`ve read a lot of the threads in there, some great info and insights.

 

[Flying Fox]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Apologies for the delayed post on this incident. On the day the flight was relatively routine, it seems we were diverted to Mildura because fog had rolled into Adelaide. Unlike some of the media reports we did not circle Adelaide for 45 mins. An announcement came over that due to fog in Adelaide we were diverting and would land in 10 minutes. After about 15 mins we were still quite high up, I couldn`t see much as I was in 4C and wasn`t paying to much attention to be honest as the aircraft was flying normally etc. Not bouncing around with people screaming and praying like on the T.V. The first attempt at landing was aborted, apparently (I heard later) we were 30 feet off the runway when the Captain aborted the landing. After a couple of minutes a steward came on and said that we had a missed landing and were trying again. A couple of minutes later he came on and said that due to the low visibility they would ask us to assume the brace position with our heads down and hands on the back of the seat in front. There were a few nervous laughs from various passengers at this announcement. On final the cabin crew chanted in unison BRACE HEADS DOWN STAY DOWN until we came to a halt. The landing was more or less normal we then taxied to the terminal. After about 20 minutes of remaining seated whilst they sorted out boarding steps etc. The Captain came through the cabin looking very grey and apologised for the inconvenience, his remarks were that fog in Adelaide had caused the diversion and on arrival in Mildura the fog also rolled in there as well. At no time was low fuel mentioned. Later in the day in the terminal we heard that the Captain in the coughpit of the QantaS 737 that was already on the ground had talked our aircraft in. Due to an emergency being called our aircraft was not allowed to depart and another one was bought in a few hours later to collect passengers. Virgin crew and ground staff handled the situation pretty well keeping us all informed. I was disappointed though that we weren`t taken directly to Adelaide and had to transit through Melbourne. It wasn`t until earlier this week that I heard about the low fuel situation, this really worries me. TBH the whole situation on the day wasn`t a big deal, but with the low fuel it is a serious issue. I`m no expert but I can`t understand why a 737 would run low on fuel on a BNE - ADL flight, or do they only take enough fuel for the weather conditions expected and load onboard? Anyway no one was hurt, all passengers behaved on the ground, i.e. no self important people whinging about missed meetings etc. As a bonus I now have status credits for BNE -ADL, BNE - Mildura, Mildura - MEL, MEL- ADL!

Thanks for the great first hand reporting.

I don't scare on planes but the 'assume the brace position' call would be un-nerving to me.

 

[JessicaTam]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Thanks aupirate.

Have you seen the comments of pilot jb747 on weather/fog/fuel at this thread: http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/your-questions/ask-the-pilot-30478-442.html

Its about page 437, but there is more detailed explanation of weather and fuel back a bit more as well.

Can you give a post number for the fog question? Depending on the settings there can be different numbers of posts per page, and so different page numbers. Ta.

 

[RooFlyer]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Can you give a post number for the fog question? Depending on the settings there can be different numbers of posts per page, and so different page numbers. Ta.

Post 4361. However I've just looked at the subsequent posts. I think the more interesting on fuel and weather (including fog) was earlier - but I'm afraid you're on your own to find that

 

[JessicaTam]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Post 4361. However I've just looked at the subsequent posts. I think the more interesting on fuel and weather (including fog) was earlier - but I'm afraid you're on your own to find that

Cheers, thanks.

 

[straitman]

Obviously more fuel experts than me but with an average per block hour of about 2000L/hr that figure sounds a little low to me. I read online on ABC that regulators are looking at it. ABC also seemed to imply that the auto weather station at Mildura Airport was out of service for quite a while - I hope someone gets a real kick up the bum for that happening......

Surely the regular operators at MQL would have been complaining to someone about this?

I'm not sure where to start with answering this so will keep it short and to the point.

The pilots are required to flight plan based upon forecast conditions not what the AWIP states. These days forecasts tend to be quite conservative so situations like what occurred here are rare. You may have seen or heard referred to the Reason's Swiss Cheese Model. From where I'm sitting that looks to be exactly what occurred here. A compounding of many much smaller active or latent failures that all lined up at once.

You are never going to completely eliminate problems but at the same time would be very unfortunate to ever have the all the holes in the cheese line up again as they did here.

With regard to the specific comment: 'I hope someone gets a real kick up the bum for that happening......' I strongly disagree.

Some time ago I was responsible for signing for, authorising and paying for the repairs to the ILS at East Sale. On occasions it was decided to defer repairs for a few days. This was always in consultation with affected parties and in consideration to forecast weather. There were however times when the actual and the forecast weather were different enough that it affected operations. The point is that the affected parties did not include the RPT operators as the likely hood of them needing the ESL ILS was absolutely minimal. There would be notam issued saying it was out of service and that would be that. The same would have been the case with the Mildura AWIP and hence my disagreement with the comment.

 

[markis10]

The ATSB has announced this morning that they have expanded their investigation:

As a result of its increased understanding of events, the ATSB has expanded the scope of its investigation to examine both of these diversions and their broader context. The investigation title has been amended to reflect this expanded investigation focus, which will include examination of the:

• forecasting and distribution of weather information by the Bureau of Meteorology
• provision of weather and operational information by Airservices Australia to all aircraft that were affected by the reduced visibility at Adelaide
• provision of weather and operational information to those aircraft by the operators
• influence on the flight crews’ decision making of that information flow.

Investigation: AO-2013-100 - Weather related operational event involving B737s VH-YIR and VH-VYK at Mildura Airport, Victoria on 18 June 2013

 

[aupirate]

Hi Markis10, thanks for the update, hopefully the whole episode which although relatively benign on the day but could have had disastrous consequences is being throughly investigated.

 

[Hvr]

Initial report has been released, some reporting from Fairfax.

As they began their first approach, the captain concentrated on flying the plane while the first officer "provided support and assessed the aircraft's position visually over the ground".


The first officer saw that visibility to the front of the plane was "virtually non-existent".


Shortly afterwards, the pilots pulled out of the landing and conducted what is known as a "go around".
"Due to their fuel state, they were required to land from the next approach, regardless of conditions," the ATSB investigators said in their preliminary report released on Thursday.


"The crew briefed the cabin crew of their plan and that they would be given an emergency landing call during their approach."
The pilots also told the flight attendants that the "touchdown would be firm and that they had about four minutes before landing".


As they began the second approach, the "first officer made the 'BRACE BRACE BRACE PA announcement" as the plane dropped below 600 feet.


The flight attendants immediately told passengers to keep their heads down.

Read more: Virgin Australia plane in fuel emergency at Mildura airport
​

 

[oz_mark]

See also ATSB site: Investigation: AO-2013-100 - Weather related operational event involving B737s VH-YIR and VH-VYK at Mildura Airport, Victoria on 18 June 2013