Ask The Pilot

[ChrisGibbs]

Thanks for this. Assuming the aircraft had a MEL before the outbound sectors how do you explain for the direct route on the outbound sectors and the indirect routing for the return sectors?

 

[AviatorInsight]

Thanks for this. Assuming the aircraft had a MEL before the outbound sectors how do you explain for the direct route on the outbound sectors and the indirect routing for the return sectors?

If an EDTO MEL was applied before they left MEL (too many MELs), then there is no way they could make that direct track to AKL. The FR24 data shows they actually landed early and then left 30mins late. Perhaps something happened on the turn?

Every other AKL-MEL flight took that direct tracking back on that day, so it wouldn't have been to avoid any jetstreams.

I've included a photo showing the 60min rings on the major ports that would be able to be used as EDTO airports. MEL-AKL-MEL has a segment that needs to be EDTO. Otherwise, you can see the track that you would need to take to remain within 60mins, it looks very similar to the one actually flown.