Navigational error causes AirAsiaX flight from Sydney to land in Melbourne instead of Kuala Lumpur

A “0” accidentally omitted by the captain of an Air Asia flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur resulted in the jet landing in Melbourne instead. The incident, which occurred on March 10, 2015, is part of an Air Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report released on Wednesday.

The captain, who was new in his role because he switched duties with the first officer, copied the coordinates from a sign outside the cockpit window but inadvertently excluded a “0.” The mistake made the Airbus 330 navigation system think it was taking off near the coast of Cape Town in South Africa.

In reality, there was a difference of 11,000 kilometres since South Africa has a longtitude of 15ᵒ 19.8 east, while Sydney was 151ᵒ 19.8 east, reports National Post. The ATSB report says the magnitude of the error adversely affected the plane’s navigation functions, global positioning system receivers and some electronic centralised aircraft monitoring alerts.

The mistake was noticed only when the plane was airborne and started to head in the wrong direction after the captain and first officer heard an alert of “terrain, terrain.” Those warning words were supposed to indicate the plane is too close to ground, but the two disregarded the alert since they saw nothing in their path, reports Sydney Morning Herald.

When the autopilot was switched on at 124 metres, the Air AsiaX flight was turning left instead of right and crossing the path of other aircraft expected to depart soon, air traffic controllers noticed. They asked the pilots what was happening and were informed the plane’s tracking and navigation equipment showed the error warning “GPS primary lost.”

To fix the problem, the pilots flew the aircraft over the ocean east of Sydney while communicating with air traffic controllers. Because the jet lost its autopilot and auto-thrust features, the pilots decided to go back to Sydney, however, low-lying cloud and rain prevented them from physically seeing the runway on approach.

Melbourne air traffic controllers, whose help were sought by the Sydney team, tracked the Air AsiaX plane on radar and provided the pilots constant direction until the wayward aircraft landed at Tullamarine Airport. It landed one hour and 54 minutes after the Sydney take off at 2:03 pm.

The airport’s ground crew inspected the equipment malfunction and after finding no fault allowed the plane with the same crew to depart after 5 pm. The Air AsiaX jet eventually arrived in the Malaysian capital city.

It is not the first time a pilot entered the wrong coordinates, but it is a rare event usually occurring only twice a year, says the ATSB report. It happened twice prior to the Air AsiaX incident at Sydney Airport. The first incident involved a Philippine Airlines Airbus A320 in January 2007 and the second an Airbus A340 in July 2011.

Airbus recommended air carriers to update to its system in 2013 to prevent a repeat, but Air Asia has so far updated only half of its affected planes globally, according to Sydney Morning Herald. However, Air Asia X said in a statement on Wednesday it had upgraded the flight management systems on all its jets, distributed training bulletin and briefed its pilots on the results of an internal investigation on the incident.

In a statement, the air carrier said, "AirAsia X would like to stress that we have in place robust management systems to monitor and prevent similar incidents from reoccurring.

"We also wish to reiterate that we have regularly passed safety and security audits conducted by various international regulators, including the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). We remain committed to ensuring our compliance to all safety and security regulations.

"The safety of all guests and crew are our utmost priority at all times."

VIDEO: Pilot Error Causes AirAsia Flight to Land in Melbourne Instead of Malaysia