Malaysia Airlines safety breach ‘endangered all’

A serious safety oversight has stunned many in Australia’s aviation industry.

The covers used to protect the pitot probes on aircraft while parked at Brisbane Airport. Picture: ATSB.

A serious safety oversight that has stunned many in the aviation industry has been blamed for an incident involving Malaysia Airlines at Brisbane Airport last month.

Flight MH134 was forced to return to Brisbane soon after takeoff on July 18 when the Airbus A330-300’s airspeed indication failed.

The aircraft made an “overweight” landing and had to be towed from the main runway to the gate due to the loss of nose wheel steering and minor damage to the main landing gear doors.

A preliminary report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found the reason for the loss of airspeed indication was that the pitot probes were not uncovered before takeoff.

Pitot probes provide air data computers and flight instruments with airspeed information and are ineffective if covered or blocked.

The report noted that external checks of the aircraft by the captain and maintenance engineer failed to detect the probe covers, which are red and have a long tag carrying the words “remove before flight”. Ground handlers also failed to notice the covers, which were fitted by one of the engineering support personnel as advised by Brisbane Airport.

An airport wasp problem has led to pitot probes being covered while aircraft are on the ground, even during routine turnarounds, to prevent nests being built.

Some airlines such as Qantas require the flight crew to be presented with or shown the covers once they are removed from the pitot probes shortly before takeoff.

Australian and International Pilots Association technical and safety manager Shane Loney said plenty of questions remained about the MH134 incident.

“The key things are, how they came to leave with the pitot covers still on, and what was seen (in the cockpit) at the 100-knot call,” Mr Loney said. “I would not have expected the airspeed indications to be accurate at that point but the report suggests the 100-knot-speed call was made. I wonder what the crew were looking at?”

Former airline captain Byron Bailey said it was unclear from the report whether the co-pilot called “check” in response to the captain’s call of 100 knots. “It is unbelievable that a professional airline crew could sit on the takeoff roll for 42 seconds and not notice they had no airspeed,” Mr Bailey said.

“These calls are mandatory checks. The incompetence of this crew endangered the lives of all on board because flying around with no airspeed indication is haz­ardous in the extreme,” he said.

The report said the flight crew and engineer were not in the habit of using pitot covers on turnarounds and did not normally fly to airports where the use of covers was standard. Security video showed pitot covers were not used on three previous turnarounds by Malaysia Airlines’ flights at Brisbane Airport despite airworthiness bulletins and airfield information about the wasps.

The ATSB issued a safety advisory in response to the incident, urging airlines to ensure “there were rigorous procedures for confirming pitot covers were removed before flight”.

ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood said it was a serious incident and the investigation was continuing. “We will be focusing specifically on the procedures for flight crew and ground crew in relation to the pre-flight checks for the aircraft, and also the cockpit warning systems received by the flight crew as they accelerated down Runway 01,” Mr Hood said.