Traveler's Edition
After entering the wrong coordinates into the internal navigation system for the flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur, an AirAsia plane found itself landing in Melbourne after an error made by the pilot!
The incident occurred in March 2015 but the details on how the flight – destined for Kuala Lumpur – landed 6,611km away in Melbourne have remained unclear. Until now, that is!
An air safety investigation has revealed that due to a number of errors made by members of the flight crew, the AirAsia flight was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Melbourne airport.
So how did this happen? Before the flight, the pilot usually completes an external check of the plane whilst the co-pilot remains in the cockpit and enters the geographical coordinates which will map out the flight’s route. However, on this occasion, a fault with the pilot’s earmuffs caused the two to switch roles. At this point, the pilot incorrectly entered the flight coordinates.
However it took the crew quite some time to realize the mistake, at which point they requested a landing back in Sydney. Due to bad weather, the plane was instead diverted to Melbourne where the error was corrected and the flight was able to land in its intended destination of Kuala Lumpur – 6 hours later than scheduled.
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