Tigerair flight forced to return to Sydney after 'threat'

[33kft]

Tigerair flight forced to return to Sydney after 'threat'

A Tigerair flight bound for Melbourne has been forced to return to Sydney after an on board “incident”.

Australian Federal Police officers were called to meet Tigerair flight TT271 when it touched down at 8.35pm when the crew became aware of a potential threat.

“The Captain made the decision to return to Sydney following an incident onboard. In line with standard procedures,” the airline said in a statement.

“The safety of our crew and guests is always our highest priority and we are working with the relevant authorities to investigate the matter.”

No one was arrested and there were no injuries.

An investigation is underway.

 

[33kft]

According to pprune, a bomb threat was called in for the flight (hence no arrests onboard). Not confirmed, not sure how accurate that info is.

 

[Quickstatus]

How quickly did the AFP get to the airline this time.

Remember the MH128 MEL-KUL in June 2017 when the AFP took 90 min to enter the aircraft.

 

[Denali]

The aircraft sat on the tarmac for two hours before it was taken to the terminal and passengers were told to stay seated and switch off their phones, before being allowed to disembark at around 11pm......The stewardesses came on and made sure everyone was turning their phones off, and then we stayed on the tarmac for about two hours," another passenger said.


Next time someone gives me poop for flying J SYD-MELB, I'll remember the 2+hrs sitting on the tarmac.

 

[docjames]

Reports on the radio in Melbourne this morning that a note was found in one of the toilets.

 

[Melburnian1]

I have belatedly added this incident to the Tigerair cancellations/thread:

Tigerair Australia Delays/Cancellations

Next time I'm on the overnight NSWTrainLink XPT between Melbourne and Sydney I'll remember the travails those who book last flights of the night (or close to it) with JQ or TT can sometimes go through.

And often, no accommodation provided overnight by these LCC airlines even if hotels have spare rooms. If there were 180 on this TT flight, 179 passengers would have every right to feel 'disgruntled' as media reports indicate some were.

Just crazy to leave a note in a toilet, although if somewhat hidden, it may have been from a previous flight. What if someone was observant and remembered which passengers had visited the loo in question?

 

[Dr_Goz]

T

How quickly did the AFP get to the airline this time.

Remember the MH128 MEL-KUL in June 2017 when the AFP took 90 min to enter the aircraft.

Problem there was Victoria Police. They for some reason thought the doors were coughy trapped, so waited some time for the bomb squad to arrive.

 

[Quickstatus]

T


Problem there was Victoria Police. They for some reason thought the doors were coughy trapped, so waited some time for the bomb squad to arrive.

That was the spin they threw out. It didnt smell right at the time to many people

 

[Melburnian1]

That was the spin they threw out. It didnt smell right at the time to many people

Yes, so typical of Victoria Police. Such a contrast to the professional looking and acting NSW Police!

 

[Quickstatus]

The TT passengers would have missed the 2042 CLK621 XPT to MEL and would have to wait until the 0742 CLK623 the next day. If they availed themselves of this service theywould still have arrived before the next avail next day 2100 TT flight

 

[Melburnian1]

The TT passengers would have missed the 2042 CLK621 XPT to MEL and would have to wait until the 0742 CLK623 the next day. If they availed themselves of this service theywould still have arrived before the next avail next day 2100 TT flight

To be fair, there were TT flights in between. But given this airline's load factor is (over all flights) typically above 85 per cent, what AFF rarely has reports of (since few of us seem to fly JQ or TT) is just how these passengers get from their origin to destination when a flight like this is cancelled or diverted.

I'm not willing to be a guinea pig and book the last JQ or TT flight of the night on a day with bad weather forecast.

 

[dajop]

if they availed themselves of this service theywould still have arrived before the next avail next day 2100 TT flight

I get it that Tiger is a LCC, but for goodness sake it costs VA “group” very little to transfer distressed passengers to the parent carrier and would generate much needed goodwill for Tiger. They would get people there much earlier than the next days XPT!!

 

[Melburnian1]

I get it that Tiger is a LCC, but for goodness sake it costs VA “group” very little to transfer distressed passengers to the parent carrier and would generate much needed goodwill for Tiger. They would get people there much earlier than the next days XPT!!

All true, but how many spare seats does VA have on fairly busy weekdays each way between SYD and MEL? If it operates say 25 flights with an average capacity of 180 (assuming no A332s) and 90 per cent of seats are occupied, that's roughly 450 empty seats one way. So all it needs is a VA flight or two to be cancelled (not due to low bookings but because of weather, a plane fault or crewing problem), and same for TT, and suddenly VA lacks spare seats for remaining passengers, assuming for the argument that the popular SYD - MEL route sees TT with no spare seats on its remaining flights.

Of course, on some days, there will be more VA flights, a minority may be widebody A332s (adding to seat capacity) and there may be higher numbers of vacant seats on VA and TT. But it doesn't take many cancellations for the VA/TT group to run out of spare seats.

By the way, the NSWTrainLink XPT operates twice daily: morning and night. I have used both, and recently when the Hume Freeway was flooded, the train still managed to get to its destination same day, and apparently only an hour late.

 

[dajop]

The other question I have, and this is not a criticism (as I have no clue about processes for dealing with such incidents), but why is it turn back to SYD? At the turn around point, MEL seemed to be 20km closer than SYD. I presume though that it would be quicker to get back to SYD than reach MEL as the MEL-SYD direction is almost always quicker. Also presume CBR not an option due to either ground support (lack of) or simply that you don't want to be taking a threatened plane to the capital.

 

[Melburnian1]

The other question I have, and this is not a criticism (as I have no clue about processes for dealing with such incidents), but why is it turn back to SYD? At the turn around point, MEL seemed to be 20km closer than SYD. I presume though that it would be quicker to get back to SYD than reach MEL as the MEL-SYD direction is almost always quicker.....

dajop, I am not an aviator but it is a matter of record that AviatorInsight said, in response to a question for me, that 'lately MEL has become a nightmare to operate into' (slightly paraphrasing his exact words as this site is difficult to search). He said it was now the most difficult of the three major airports on the lower east coast to operate into, a title BNE once apparently held.

So I suspect you're on the money. The typical schedules (Tigerair adds five minutes) are 85 minutes northbound gate-to-gate MEL to SYD and 90 in the reverse direction. MEL seems to have far more holds than SYD.

One airline, Rex, had a go publicly via a submission to some inquiry re Melbourne Airport, claiming that the latter was timetabling about 10 more 'movements' an hour at times than the airport can realistically handle. Not passenger or pilot friendly if one wants to be punctual!

TT only flies once a day between MEL and CBR so it would not have staff available all day. Another of this site's aviators, jb747 has previously remarked if I recall that ground support is most important. Logical.

 

[AviatorInsight]

The other question I have, and this is not a criticism (as I have no clue about processes for dealing with such incidents), but why is it turn back to SYD? At the turn around point, MEL seemed to be 20km closer than SYD. I presume though that it would be quicker to get back to SYD than reach MEL as the MEL-SYD direction is almost always quicker. Also presume CBR not an option due to either ground support (lack of) or simply that you don't want to be taking a threatened plane to the capital.

In my experience in dealing with this situation, the decision to turn around would have been made well before that point. The crew would have contacted the company and then co-ordinated with ATC a return. This all takes time and until a clearance was given to return, the aircraft would still maintain the flight planned route. In any case, 20km = 10nm so practically negligible in aviation terms.

 

[Melburnian1]

In my experience in dealing with this situation, the decision to turn around would have been made well before that point...

One doesn't want to be naive or hoping for nirvana, but it'd be hoped air crew don't ever have to deal with 'this situation' of a bomb threat (or heaven forbid a hijacking). Of course diversions may also occasionally occur due to sheer bad behaviour on board, typically from inebriated passengers I assume.

The individual who allegedly made this threat is probably incapable of self analysis but boy do they need to.