Latest incident involving 'wing flap' failing to deploy is sixth in 18 months by low-cost carrier Down Under.
The latest “technical incident” involving AirAsia X in Australia has seen calls for the airline to be grounded by the relevant authority Down Under.
Referring to six separate incidents recorded over the past 18 months, aviation expert Neil Hansford even accused Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) of favouring the Malaysia-based low-cost carrier, news portal news.com.au reported recently.
Related news: AirAsia X boss admits Australian customer service below par
“All of those incidents are inexcusable. If it was one of the smaller Australian carriers, Casa would ground them,” Hansford was quoted as saying.
The latest incident involving the low-cost carrier occurred on Oct 8, when AirAsia X flight D7-200 was diverted from the Gold Coast to Brisbane because its wing flaps had failed to fully deploy.
The wing flaps are critical in helping to slow down an aircraft when it lands, hence it was feared the A330 aircraft would overshoot the runway at Gold Coast’s Coolangatta Airport and plough into traffic.
All other flights were temporarily suspended at the Brisbane airport, where fire trucks were also placed on standby, and other aircraft cleared from the runway, ahead of the landing.
AirAsia X later confirmed the diversion had taken place “due to a minor technical issue”.
“The problems are a direct reflection of the quality of training, the quality of supervision and the quality of the checks being done,” Hansford told the news portal.
Further to Hansford’s accusation, a spokesman for Casa said they would not discuss AirAsia X, but stressed “there was no extra attention being given to the budget airline”.
To which, Hansford asked if Casa was waiting for a plane crash before taking action.
“Casa needs to say (to AirAsia X) ‘you lose your flight approval to come to Australia, until you raise standards’.”
The Oct 8 incident was the sixth incident involving AirAsia X to be investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in 18-months.
According to news.com.au, the airline is currently under investigation for four other incidents, and the completion of another investigation from March 2015 even forced the airline to overhaul its training procedures.
On March 10, 2015, AirAsia X flight 223 departed Sydney and headed for Melbourne – instead of its intended destination, Kuala Lumpur.
The ATSB later found that the captain had inadvertently entered the wrong data into the flight computer. The flight crew were unable to correct the error and the A330 had to divert to Melbourne for landing with the assistance of Air Traffic Control.
According to news.com.au, the other four incidents under active investigation are:
- a “loss of separation” involving an AirAsia X A330 and a Jetstar plane over the Gold Coast in July 2016;
- an engine shutdown en route from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur, resulting in a diversion to Melbourne on Aug 16;
- a taxiing incident in Melbourne last month, in which an AirAsia X aircraft began taxiing before the pushback tug and engine moved clear; and
- a descent below minimum safe altitude at Gold Coast Airport on Sept 11
Meanwhile, as the airline approaches its tenth year of service Down Under in 2017 , the airline continues to grow in popularity with Australian travellers.
Official numbers show that AirAsia X registered a 46 per cent growth for the year up to July, and has a market share of 4.1 per cent of the passenger traffic flying to and from Australia.
Original article from http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/10/18/aussie-aviation-expert-calls-for-airasia-x-suspension/
