From The West, 30 July 16:
New AirAsia inquiry after close call
Australia’s crash investigator is inquiring into yet another safety incident involving the AirAsia group after one of its planes came within 152m of a Jetstar flight on the Gold Coast last week.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has three AirAsia investigations under way, including one into an incident in Perth on February 19when the plane flew 300m too low on approach to Perth Airport at night.
In the Gold Coast incident, on July 21, it is alleged by industry sources that the crew of the Air-Asia X flight, which had just taken off from the Gold Coast, did not follow air traffic control instructions , bringing their A330 too close to a Jetstar flight coming into land.
The Jetstar pilots were monitoring their traffic collision avoidance system and avoided the plane.
However, an AirAsia X spokesman told The Weekend West yesterday that its pilots had “followed the flight path according to the heading and altitude provided by the air traffic controller” .
It confirmed its pilots had been warned by the traffic collision avoidance system and responded by reducing the vertical speed.
Can Altitude Capture be disengaged by using VS in the Airbus?