Jetstar denies safety cover-up

Media reports say that a Jetstar Airbus came within 13m of the runway during an aborted landing at Melbourne Airport, with Jetstar denying covering up a serious incident when a plane from Christchurch came within 13m of the ground while aborting a landing at fog-bound Melbourne Airport.

The airline reported the July incident to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) but did not include details that would have prompted a full investigation.

A full bureau probe occurred nearly two months afterwards when the missing details emerged in an airline industry magazine.

The bureau’s preliminary report, released yesterday, said the Airbus jet, with 138 passengers, twice triggered ground-proximity warnings during the first aborted landing.

The crew were unaware the Airbus had not changed to the expected flight-guidance mode.

When it continued to descend below the critical decision height of 60m, the pilot had to take over manual control of the aircraft, which came within 13m of the ground before finally climbing.

Jestar chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline “recognises that its subsequent communication with the ATSB on this matter could have been improved” but denied it had deliberately covered up the seriousness of the incident.

“Jetstar has undertaken a number of immediate safety actions, which have included the clarification of, and revision of, procedures,” he said.

Jetstar had conducted an internal investigation and taken action.

The company’s corporate relations general manager, Simon Westaway, said that far from withholding information, the airline “proactively sought out more information” about the flight and provided updates to the bureau.

However, in its preliminary report released yesterday, the bureau said information uncovered by Jetstar in its internal investigation in August “was not provided to the ATSB” and that it had contacted Jetstar in September, “in response to media reports of a potentially serious incident” at Melbourne Airport.

The allegations of breaching flight safety rules were raised in Aviation Business magazine. A Jetstar spokesman dismissed them as “poppycock”, but admitted the pilot had received extra training.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority in New Zealand said it did not comment on the findings of a separate authority.

Asked if the finding could affect Jetstar’s International Operating Certificate for this country, he said the open-skies agreement with Australia meant the airline probably did not need a certificate to fly here.

Jetstar reported the incident to the bureau five days later, including indicating that automated systems on board “did not function correctly; however, the crew took manual control and the aircraft performed correctly once they did”.

The initial report led the bureau to conclude the incident was not reportable.

On August 2, an internal Jetstar investigation found the enhanced ground proximity warning system had activated during the first missed approach, but that information was not provided to the bureau for more than five weeks, until the bureau began responding to media reports about a serious incident.

With the added information, it found the incident was sufficiently serious to justify an immediate investigation.

The bureau said it planned to investigate flight crew training, aircraft operating procedures, information provided to flight crews, company reporting procedures, and aircraft system operation and maintenance.

Jetstar’s review led to an internal message to all crews, requiring use of full take-off thrust for all missed approaches. A flight standing order revised the company’s missed-approach procedure and crew actions.

A Report by The Mole and other media sources