EZY6942 - reversal turns
Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I was flying Keflavik-Edinburgh last night on EZY6942 and witnessed some strange manoeuvres. I'm not an airline pilot but have been an instructor for some years and also know a reasonable amount about ATC.
I wonder if anyone can shed light on the following?
About 20 minutes after departure from Keflavik, and I think just after levelling at FL390, we rolled into a right turn through at least 30 degrees. But when we rolled out of that turn, we continued rolling straight into a left turn through about the same heading change.
Then, about halfway into the flight, and just before crossing some opposite direction traffic below us, we rolled into a left turn through at least 30 degrees then once again immediately reversed the turn and kept that right turn going on to a new more southerly heading. It also looked like, after more or less levelling the wings, the aircraft was actually sitting right wing low for at least a minute after that turn, i.e. still in a gradual right turn. I got the impression that the aircraft may have been under manual control rather than AP.
On the initial approach into Edinburgh we had another reversed turn - although not as clear as the previous two. Then, when we finally emerged into VMC, we were on a left base leg for 24 from the SOUTH.
All very strange, so when I got home I did a playback on Flightradar24. This showed the "jink" 20 mins after takeoff, and also showed that there was no other traffic anywhere in the vicinity that might have explained the turns.
The playback doesn't show the second turn reversal, although it does show the heading change to the right just as we crossed the opposite direction traffic (which was 5000ft below us).
As regards the manoeuvres on approach to Edinburgh, we appear to have been initially under vectors to STIRA (initial approach fix) then on to an easterly heading, which would be normal for vectoring to a right base for 24. But then we turned right, crossed the final approach at 4000ft, and were then descended and turned left to join a left base. No obvious traffic reasons for sending us to the other side of the approach (although some aircraft don't show up on FR24).
I would have asked the captain as we left the aircraft but he was busy talking to someone else.
Anyone got any ideas?