Virgin flight declares emergency after fog diversion

[Hugh Jarse]

Macquarie seems to be making a good profit. Perhaps they could do what any other responsible business does, and reinvest in its infrastructure?

Sorry, we're talking about airports aren't we

[Nigel C]

My nightshifts tell me that they are investing in infrastructure

[Philip Argy]

This preliminary report summarises the facts well:
http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/4172363...100_prelim.pdf

It looks as though the Virgin crew ceded priority to Qantas mistakenly believing the QF a/c had less fuel than them. However, this was not the case and, as a result of ceding priority to QF and then having a missed approach, they ended up landing with only 535kg of fuel compared to the 2,100kg that the QF a/c had left.

The fog had also thickened so that they were landing without knowing where they were along the runway. Accordingly they flew the a/c onto the ground and called for passengers to brace as a precaution.

It is clear that the crew were badly let down by poor quality MET information including an inoperative ATIS at Mildura.

[Rob R]

On vacating the runway Qantas had 2100kg, not 2800. If you look at the numbers, both aircraft arrived with similar fuel. However due to Virgin allowing Qantas to land first, due to Qantas saying fuel was an issue, the extra holding while waiting for Qantas to land followed by an approach and missed approach used up the fuel.

[Philip Argy]

You're right, Rob - I've corrected the remaining fuel to 2,100 kg - still nearly four times that of the Virgin a/c which remember came from Brisbane whereas the QF had only come from Sydney.

[MarkR]

Inoperative ATIS???? AFAIK it's been inoperative since Flight Service shutdown in 1990.

[Rob R]

Philip,

The Virgin aircraft planned to arrive overhead Adelaide with 2500kg and Qantas 2800kg, when both aircraft diverted Virgin arrived overhead Mildura with 2000kg with Qantas arriving with 2900kg. Virgin arrived in the circuit at 2332 and started tracking out the the south east for the RWY27 RNAV, whilst doing this Qantas arrived and stated fuel was an issue. Now it would appear after hearing that the Virgin crew thought the Qantas aircraft was lower on fuel than them, so the Virgin crew allowed Qantas to land first held while Qantas landed. Qantas did no holding and busted minima to land and landed with 2100kg.

After Qantas landed Virgin did their first approach and didn't get visual, this was at 2358, 26 mins after they first arrived at Mildura. During this 26 min delay the Virgin aircraft would have burnt around 1000 kg of fuel, hence after the first approach they would have been approaching their fixed reserve (30mins) and had to land of the next approach. Flying the second approach and landing would have used another 500kg, hence landing with 535kg. Virgin shutdown at 0018, which was 48 mins after the arrived in the Mildura circuit. That's 48 mins of mins fuel tags could have been in the tanks if they landed first.

So that is the reason why Qantas landed with nearly 4 times the amount of fuel. If both aircraft had of landed in Adelaide there would have been 300kg difference in fuel. If Virgin had of landed first and busted minima (like Qantas did) they would have landed with around 1600kg. Qantas would have had to hold for up to 48 mins they would have landed with less than 1000kg.

If the Qantas aircraft never said "we have a fuel issue" there would have been a different outcome.

[Rowan McKeever]

Originally Posted by Rob R

If the Qantas aircraft never said "we have a fuel issue" there would have been a different outcome.

I'm not going to presuppose the outcome of the investigation but it wouldn't surprise me to see a comment along the lines that, had the VA crew asked the QF crew for more details on their fuel situation, the VA aircraft would've landed first followed by QF instead of the other way around. Noone should get a pat on the head for their communication, really.

[Rob R]

True Rowan, a little bit more communication may have lead to a different outcome an perhaps more was said, or perhaps the tone in which it was said may not have helped. Another thing to remember we are taught to Aviate, Navigate and Communicate in that order.

[Daniel M]

An interesting question raised on another forum was, what if a situation had arose whereby the Qantas aircraft had a runway excursion on landing in Mildura and became immobile ?