VA fog related emergency landing in Mildura

[Hvr]

VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Being reported on 3aw that a Virgin 737 has made an emergency landing at Mildura airport. 91 people on board, landed safely.

More news to follow.

 

[Hvr]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Further report on 3aw, the QF flight landed normally and then provided landing assistance to the VA pilot who was running short of fuel.

http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/breakin...or-virgin-australia-plane/20130618-2ofbx.html

 

[anat0l]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Why would the VA 737 need guidance to land (wouldn't a ground service provide this), and what kind of guidance would the QF aircraft provide?

I assume the QF aircraft landed without another aircraft's / crew's assistance. Maybe it's the article wording.

 

[serfty]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Fog in ADL?!

 

[markis10]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Aircraft diverted due Fog, as to guidance to land that could be anything including a follow me vehicle after landing.

 

[NM]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Why would the VA 737 need guidance to land (wouldn't a ground service provide this), and what kind of guidance would the QF aircraft provide?

I assume the QF aircraft landed without another aircraft's / crew's assistance. Maybe it's the article wording.

Can only assume that a QF flight to Mildura would be a Dash-8 and the pilots likely very familiar with the airport and local conditions, while the VA 737 crew could be less familiar with the particular regional airport and perhaps not be familiar with the airport approaches and local conditions. Assistance may have been as simple as telling them about the local conditions and recommending the most suitable approach to ensure they get down first time and not require to go-around.

 

[markis10]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Can only assume that a QF flight to Mildura would be a Dash-8 and the pilots likely very familiar with the airport and local conditions, while the VA 737 crew could be less familiar with the particular regional airport and perhaps not be familiar with the airport approaches and local conditions. Assistance may have been as simple as telling them about the local conditions and recommending the most suitable approach to ensure they get down first time and not require to go-around.

Probably poor reporting, VA run the Jungle Jets into Mildura.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

more here: Virgin flight declares emergency after fog diversion

<snip>
However, the fog rolled in across Mildura too, making landing difficult.

Mr Burke said the Virgin flight had to pull out of two attempted landings, and ran low on fuel in the process.

He said the plane declared an emergency, but was able to land safely.

A Virgin Australia spokesman said the plane was met by emergency vehicle on landing as ''a precautionary measure only, that is standard operating procedure under the conditions, which in this instance was a diverted landing due to bad weather.''

The spokesman said the Virgin pilot had received ''some information over the radio'' from a Qantas pilot who had landed a plane on the Mildura runway minutes before the Virgin 737 made its landing.
<snip>

 

[NM]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Probably poor reporting, VA run the Jungle Jets into Mildura.

But do they run 737-800s there regularly enough for the operating crew to be familiar with the environment - particularly if the conditions are difficult?

 

[markis10]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

But do they run 737-800s there regularly enough for the operating crew to be familiar with the environment - particularly if the conditions are difficult?

I would expect they do a SIM, over Christmas the 737 was subbed for the jungle jets on that route.

 

[RooFlyer]

Deleted .. duplicated (apologies).

 

[VHOEJ]

Wait a minute - you mean an airline other than QF had an emergency and the news actually mentioned it?

 

[Conrad_S]

Had pax on the news saying the were told to assume the brace position for landing. Maybe I'll have a look at that card again next week.

 

[aupirate]

Had pax on the news saying the were told to assume the brace position for landing. Maybe I'll have a look at that card again next week.

I was on the diverted flight to Mildura it was a bit scary crew were brilliant will file a more in depth post in a couple of days when I get home.

 

[Flying Fox]

Pilot who flew in low visibility while running out of fuel praised for safe landing | News.com.au

Flight VA 1384 from Brisbane to Adelaide, on June 18, had less than 800kg of fuel when it landed at Mildura after an aborted attempt due to heavy fog.

"It (the flight) was committed - it didn't have enough fuel to do another go-around," he said.

Doesn't sound very safe to me at all.

​

 

[eastwest101]

Obviously more fuel experts than me but with an average per block hour of about 2000L/hr that figure sounds a little low to me. I read online on ABC that regulators are looking at it. ABC also seemed to imply that the auto weather station at Mildura Airport was out of service for quite a while - I hope someone gets a real kick up the bum for that happening......

Surely the regular operators at MQL would have been complaining to someone about this?

 

[pauly7]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Surpised this serious incident didn't get more media coverage...

I guess they had no hysterical 10 year olds chewing gum and saying how scared they were for TV and the fact that it was Virgin, not Qantas that got into a sticky situation....

Will be interesting to read the official write up.

 

[Sprucegoose]

I was on the diverted flight to Mildura it was a bit scary crew were brilliant will file a more in depth post in a couple of days when I get home.

Interesting thnxs

 

[Fruitcake]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

Surpised this serious incident didn't get more media coverage...

I guess they had no hysterical 10 year olds chewing gum and saying how scared they were for TV and the fact that it was Virgin, not Qantas that got into a sticky situation....

Will be interesting to read the official write up.

According to pprune (terrible source, admittedly) both the QF and VA aircraft arrived at Mildura almost simultaneously. At that point, the QF aircraft was in a slightly poorer fuel position so he went in first. The VA aircraft followed but in the time that the QF aircraft landed and cleared the runway, VA had obviously run down more fuel.

I suspect, like you, the relatively non-hysterical media coverage was due to it not being QF. A QF aircraft declaring a fuel emergency and landing with pax in crash brace position would generate banner headlines for at least a couple of days.

 

[aupirate]

Re: VA 737 emergency landing MQL

According to pprune (terrible source, admittedly) both the QF and VA aircraft arrived at Mildura almost simultaneously. At that point, the QF aircraft was in a slightly poorer fuel position so he went in first. The VA aircraft followed but in the time that the QF aircraft landed and cleared the runway, VA had obviously run down more fuel.

I suspect, like you, the relatively non-hysterical media coverage was due to it not being QF. A QF aircraft declaring a fuel emergency and landing with pax in crash brace position would generate banner headlines for at least a couple of days.

Apologies for the delayed post on this incident. On the day the flight was relatively routine, it seems we were diverted to Mildura because fog had rolled into Adelaide. Unlike some of the media reports we did not circle Adelaide for 45 mins. An announcement came over that due to fog in Adelaide we were diverting and would land in 10 minutes. After about 15 mins we were still quite high up, I couldn`t see much as I was in 4C and wasn`t paying to much attention to be honest as the aircraft was flying normally etc. Not bouncing around with people screaming and praying like on the T.V. The first attempt at landing was aborted, apparently (I heard later) we were 30 feet off the runway when the Captain aborted the landing. After a couple of minutes a steward came on and said that we had a missed landing and were trying again. A couple of minutes later he came on and said that due to the low visibility they would ask us to assume the brace position with our heads down and hands on the back of the seat in front. There were a few nervous laughs from various passengers at this announcement. On final the cabin crew chanted in unison BRACE HEADS DOWN STAY DOWN until we came to a halt. The landing was more or less normal we then taxied to the terminal. After about 20 minutes of remaining seated whilst they sorted out boarding steps etc. The Captain came through the cabin looking very grey and apologised for the inconvenience, his remarks were that fog in Adelaide had caused the diversion and on arrival in Mildura the fog also rolled in there as well. At no time was low fuel mentioned. Later in the day in the terminal we heard that the Captain in the coughpit of the QantaS 737 that was already on the ground had talked our aircraft in. Due to an emergency being called our aircraft was not allowed to depart and another one was bought in a few hours later to collect passengers. Virgin crew and ground staff handled the situation pretty well keeping us all informed. I was disappointed though that we weren`t taken directly to Adelaide and had to transit through Melbourne. It wasn`t until earlier this week that I heard about the low fuel situation, this really worries me. TBH the whole situation on the day wasn`t a big deal, but with the low fuel it is a serious issue. I`m no expert but I can`t understand why a 737 would run low on fuel on a BNE - ADL flight, or do they only take enough fuel for the weather conditions expected and load onboard? Anyway no one was hurt, all passengers behaved on the ground, i.e. no self important people whinging about missed meetings etc. As a bonus I now have status credits for BNE -ADL, BNE - Mildura, Mildura - MEL, MEL- ADL!