[Peetwo]

AirAsiaX FL D7237: "Shake rattle and roll!"

Technically not an international incident but it does involve an international low cost carrier, I thought it worth showing a bit of the MSM coverage of yesterday's Air Asia X inflight incident abeam West of Carnarvon and around 370km SSW of Learmonth ( FR24 ref link https://www.flightradar24.com/data/fligh...7/#dda2d15 )...

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Via ABC:

AirAsia flight returns to Perth due to 'technical issue', passenger says 'blade came off turbine'

Video: Damos Stevens said the flight was 'nerve-wracking'. (ABC News)

A passenger says an AirAsia X plane was shaking like a "washing machine" when it experienced a problem with its engine, and was forced to turn back mid-flight to Perth.

Key points:

• AirAsia X flight D7237 from Perth was forced to turn back one-and-a-half hours into flight to Malaysia
  
• Passengers say the captain announced one of the engines had seized, plane started shaking violently mid-air
  
• AirAsia said plane landed safely, turn-back due to "technical reason", guests being transferred to new flights
  

AirAsia X flight D7237 took off just before 7:00am (AWST) on Sunday, bound for Kuala Lumpur, but experienced a "technical issue" one-and-a-half hours into the trip.
The Airbus 330 landed back in Perth about 10:00am, with emergency services on site as a precaution.

Water Police said marine emergency services north of Perth were put on standby to prepare for a possible water landing.

Passenger Sophie Nicolas described the ordeal as "terrifying".

"I could just tell by the cabin crew's reaction that it was really bad," she said.

"[Crew] said 'I hope you all say a prayer, I'll be saying a prayer too, and let's hope that we all get back home safely'.

"I was crying a lot, a lot of people were crying, trying to call their mums and stuff but we couldn't really do anything just wait and trust the captain."

She praised the captain for getting them back on the ground.

"He delivered us home safely which is amazing, everybody burst into applause when we landed," she said.

'I heard a loud explosion'

Photo: Passengers say a blade came off the left-hand engine's turbine. (Supplied: Dave Parry)

Passenger Brenton Atkinson, 24, said the whole plane started shaking, far more than standard turbulence.

"It was essentially the engine seized up I think, that's what they told us anyway," he said.

"It was literally like you were sitting on top of a washing machine. The whole thing was going. We could see the engine out the window which was really shaken on the wing."

"Once we landed we realised one of the blades had actually come off the turbine."

Mr Atkinson, who was hoping to make a connecting flight to Istanbul, said the flight turned around about an hour-and-a-half into the journey.

He praised the professionalism of the crew.

"No-one was freaking out too much. It was a bit nervy. [The crew] handled it really well," he said.

Passenger Tzeyau Chung was on his way home to Kuala Lumpur.

"I heard a loud explosion I think on the left-side engine," he said.

"After the explosion it started to shake, it started to bounce, but overall the captain did a very good job.

"Of course we were a bit worried but at the end of the day ... we safely landed. I think that is the most important thing."

Passenger Damos Stevens, who filmed some of the juddering flight, said while the pilot did a great job, AirAsia had not followed through, and their communication with passengers on the ground had been poor.

'Brace for landing'

Photo: Passenger Dave Parry said the captain announced one of the plane's engines had seized mid-flight. (ABC News: Emily Piesse)

Karrinyup resident Dave Parry was on the plane with his wife, three children and mother-in-law.

"There was sort of a bang, and you could see the cabin crew were startled, and then a shudder started straight away, and I had a sense the plane was turning around," he said.

Mr Parry said the captain made an announcement shortly after, saying there appeared to have been an engine seizure.

He said they were told to brace for impact on landing.

'Technical reason' grounds aircraft

A spokeswoman for the airline said emergency services were called in as a precaution only, and only as normal procedure.

She would not confirm if the plane's engine was affected, responding only that it was a "technical issue".

In a statement, AirAsia said the flight was forced to turn around for a "technical reason".

The airline said the plane, carrying 359 passengers, landed without incident. Passengers were being transferred to later flights.

In 2015, An AirAsia plane which had made 78 trips between Perth and Bali crashed during a flight from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore.

The final report into the crash found the aircraft had a fault with its rudder limiter which went unfixed for 12 months before the crash.

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Via PT:

Why didn't that AirAsia plane land immediately, instead of going back to Perth?

Did the AirAsia X plane really land as quickly as it could once it discovered it had engine trouble?

Ben Sandilands



There are so many things that are wrong about yesterday’s incident involving an AirAsia X A330 trying to fly from Perth to Kuala Lumpur that it is possible Australia’s air safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), and incident investigator, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), could be forced to haul the Malaysian carrier into line.

The twin-engine wide-body Airbus began to shake violently (as shown in passenger videos) after a fan blade broke apart and flew, according to the commentary from the flight’s captain, into the core of the engine.

But instead of landing at the nearest suitable airfield, which in this case was Learmonth (near Exmouth), the jet carrying 359 passengers flew all the way back to Perth.

The ATSB investigation will determine the exact times and distances. However, the jet was at 38,000 feet, about 370 kilometres from Learmonth, when a loud bang followed by strong vibrations caused the engine to be shut down.

The flight had left Perth at 6.50pm local time, and it didn’t land back at its airport until 10pm, after flying about 720 kilometres and at a reduced altitude to return to its point of origin.

According to passenger accounts, some airline crew urged passengers to pray for a safe landing, and inside information reported by the Aviation Herald website says Perth airport wasn’t given precise information as to the nature of the problem.

However, maritime emergency services were reported as preparing for the possibility that the flight might ditch in the sea before the roughly 90-minute return leg had been completed.

Exactly who told the airport and emergency services what was going on aboard the AirAsia flight is unclear at this stage, but the seriousness of the incident is beyond doubt, backed up by in-cabin videos that were quickly posted on social media and had thus bypassed any control or vetting by the airline.

AirAsia X issued a statement this morning that said, among other things, that the flight had returned to Perth “shortly after take off due to a technical issue”.

But the “shortly after” reference is contradicted by the passengers and the airline’s own, more detailed commentary:

“Our flight crew were in constant communication with air traffic control. Perth Airport was the most suitable airport after assessing all possible options and requirements. The management applaud the decision made by the flight crew that brought the aircraft to land safely at Perth Airport.”

That assertion needs to be put beside the regulatory requirements of twin-engine airliner flights and the evidence of the seriousness of the situation as shown by the video evidence and the information passed to WA’s emergency services.

There is no doubt that Perth was the more distant but much more commercially convenient option for the AirAsia X diversion than landing at Learmonth.  However, Learmonth proved its suitability as an emergency airport in 2008 when a flight computer component on a Qantas A330 went berserk, injuring more than 100 of those onboard before it was able to land.

The Rolls-Royce engine type used on the AirAsia X flight, a Trent 772 to be precise, is the same as that which experienced a different failure mode on a China Eastern flight as it took off from Sydney Airport for Shanghai on June 11.

Australia’s aviation authorities, CASA and the ATSB, are notoriously reluctant to criticise airlines over incidents in which obvious issues with operational standards arise. This AirAsia X incident may test that reluctance.

MTF...P2