Are the Mildura fog incident warnings being ignored?
Ben Sandilands | Dec 19, 2013 1:03PM
There is not a word in the ATSB report about inquiring into the greedy, stupid and dangerous situation that regulatory failure in terms of fuel requirements for Australian domestic flights gives rise to, and which exposed Qantas and Virgin 737s to such a dangerous situation as the one that arose at Mildura this last winter.
Some very serious questions arose about fuel regulations and inaccurate weather forecasts affecting flights in Australia in June this year when Qantas and Virgin Australia 787s heading for Adelaide were forced to divert to Mildura and make below minimum conditions landings in dense and unforecast fog.
The sequence of events and the issues arising were reported
here, and are reported again, in even more detail, in
this morning’s release by the ATSB of an interim report into the incidents.
But in summary, the Qantas flight, which had originated in Sydney, with 152 people on board, landed at Mildura on its first attempt with 2100 kgs of fuel remaining in its tanks.
The Virgin Australia flight, which began in Brisbane, with 91 people on board, engaged in a more prolonged but futile wait for the fog to lift, aborted its first landing attempt, and came to a halt after its second and successful attempt with only 535 kgs of fuel remaining, which would have been insufficient for a third attempt.
The cabin was prepared for a possible crash landing, with the crew calling BRACE, BRACE, BRACE on touch down under extenuating circumstances detailed in both of these ATSB reports.
There were two things in common to each flight.
They were caught out by incorrect weather forecasting, not just at Adelaide, but at Mildura, to which they diverted on the basis of a fog free forecast.
And they were, incredibly for a developed first world country like Australia, allowed to fly without fuel for an alternative airport between Australian cities, which was arguably an even bigger regulatory failure than the pathetic oceanic fuel rules that applied with such excellent effect to the Pel-Air air ambulance flight which was ditched in the sea near Norfolk Island in 2009.
Today’s ATSB interim report into the Mildura fog events is mainly about its saying it “is planning to convene a safety forum in respect of the provision of operational information to the flight crews in this occurrence, and more generally.
“This forum is planned to include representatives from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Airservices Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology, the operators of VH-YIR and VH-VYK, and other relevant parties.”
The ATSB will also launch a research study into the unreliability of aviation meteorological forecasts.