[Peetwo]

Q/ Will the ATSB now be investigating?

From the AAP courtesy SBS two days ago:

8 Aug 2016 - 5:57am
Jetstar Qld flight forced to land in Guam


A Jetstar flight travelling from Japan to the Gold Coast has been forced to land on the Pacific island of Guam.
Source:
AAP
8 Aug 2016 - 5:54 AM  UPDATED YESTERDAY 5:57 AM

A Jetstar flight carrying 309 people bound for the Gold Coast has been forced to land on the Pacific island of Guam due to safety concerns.

Flight JQ12 from Narita, Japan, was diverted to Guam on Sunday after the aircraft displayed an indicator message relating to oil pressure, Jetstar said in a statement.

The pilot turned off one engine after seeing the oil pressure message.

Boeing 787s can fly safely on one engine, Jetstar said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says it's gathering more information on the unplanned landing but is yet to decide if it will investigate.

The discount airline stressed it was a "priority" landing, not an "emergency" landing.
"(This) relates to the urgency with which a flight would have to land, including how the local air traffic control responds," a spokeswoman said.

"In this case the landing was precautionary, it wasn't an emergency."

At least one disgruntled passenger vented on social media.

Teagan Lowe tweeted "Get your s*** together @JetstarAirways ... we have been stranded in Guam for 10 hours w/no updates. What's going on?!?"

Jetstar said alternative travel arrangements are being made for passengers who will arrive on the Gold Coast on Monday morning.

P2 comment: Teagan with all due respect would you rather risk having to swim the rest of the way to the Gold Coast? - UDB

This line...

 "..The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says it's gathering more information on the unplanned landing but is yet to decide if it will investigate.."

Well after just reviewing the ATSB aviation investigation page - see HERE - it would appear that the ATSB is still pondering whether they will investigate??

Maybe Hoody is temporarily distracted with his teams, frankly shambolic, recent PR management of the MH370 SIO search, however after reading Binger's article (in the Oz today) on the Jetstar Guam occurrence, I think he made need to seriously consider opening an investigation:

Fault in new engine sets off Jetstar Guam emergency

Jetstar passengers arrive home from Guam yesterday. Picture: Regi Varghese

• Mitchell Bingemann
  
• The Australian
  
• 12:00AM August 9, 2016
  

Reporter
Sydney
@Mitch_Hell
[img=0x0]http://pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/author/4c134add4c3a9e4881f7841b69d9ac85/?esi=true&t_product=the-australian&t_template=s3/austemp-article_common/vertical/author/widget&td_bio=false[/img]
The Jetstar-operated Boeing Dream­liner forced to switch off one of its engines mid-flight and divert to the Pacific ­island of Guam had a new engine installed three months ago.
Flight JQ12 — a one-year-old Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner — was bound for the Gold Coast from Narita, Japan, with about 320 people on board when it was forced to divert to the US island territory on Sunday because of a suspected oil pressure issue with one of its General Electric-manufactured GEnx engines.

The Australian has learnt the engine at fault was fitted to the plane three months ago to replace a nine-month-old version of the same model in need of repair.

“This is a relatively new ­engine so it’s unusual to have an issue like this so soon,” a Jetstar spokesman said.

“We have asked engine manufacturer GE for an explanation. GE has a team which is working with our engineers to understand what occurred.”

The engine issue will be closely watched at Qantas, which is set to take delivery of eight 787-9s also powered by GEnx engines from October next year.

The Dreamliners will progressively replace five of Qantas’s older Boeing 747s and become its flagship aircraft on international routes.

It’s not the first time Boeing’s 787 and the GEnx engine have ­endured mid-flight problems. The Australian has uncovered nine separate incidences in the past 12 months where the engines had in-flight issues.

The most recent occurred in a Qatar Airways 787 flying from Norway to Qatar with 254 people on board that was diverted when one of its engines had to be shut down mid-flight.

In April, another 787, operated by Xiamen Airlines, also had to have an engine shut down because of an oil pressure problem.

And in February, an Air India 787 also switched off one engine after encountering problems.

Despite the problems, Boeing 787s are designed to fly safely on one engine.
A spokeswoman for General Electric declined to comment about the issues with its GEnx ­engine but said the company was working with Jetstar to understand why the aircraft was forced into its unscheduled landing in Guam.

“We … expect to know more in the next 24 hours,” she said.

The incident involving Jetstar comes after the US aviation regulator in April issued an urgent ­directive for operators of as many as 150 Dreamliners to rework or replace at least one engine on 787s that use the General Electric engine.

The Federal Aviation Administration found that certain up­graded models of General Electric’s most advanced engine posed an unacceptable safety risk because internal ice build-up could result in an unexpected ­engine shutdown.

The Jetstar engine replacement and the incident at the weekend, however, are understood not to have been related to this issue.

A spokesman for Boeing could not be reached for comment but Marcus Diamond, a Safety & Technical Consultant at the Australian Federation of Air Pilots, said it was highly unusual that a three-month-old engine would have to be switched off mid-flight because of a mechanical issue.

“That an engine had to be ­replaced within nine months of ­operation on a new aircraft is unusual to begin with but that there’s now been an issue with its three-month old replacement is very unusual indeed,” he said.

The pilots who diverted the Jetstar plane to Guam with only one engine running followed the correct procedure to ensure the safety of crew and passengers on board, Mr Diamond said. “Low or no engine oil pressure can lead to much more severe conditions such as overheating, catastrophic engine failure and fire,’’ he said.

“When this happens, the proper procedure is to verify through another source that the oil ­warning is in fact correct, and then to shut down the engine.

“Once the engine low oil pressure is verified, both a red ‘master caution’ light and low gauge indication may be seen.

“Then you go through the ­engine failure or shutdown ­checklist.

“That is the common engine shutdown procedure for most ­aircraft and, indeed, what it says in the Boeing quick reference ­hand­book.”

Passengers on board the Jetstar flight had a 24-hour delay in Guam but were delivered back to the Gold Coast yesterday at 9.40am on another of Jetstar’s 787 Dreamliners.

“Safety is our highest priority, so our captain diverted the flight to the closest airport en route to the Gold Coast, and it landed ­safely in Guam, where it will be ­inspected by engineers,” the Jetstar spokesman said.