Malaysian plane makes wrong turn after takeoff from Melbourne

Concerns have been raised about another Malaysian-based carrier following an incident at Melbourne Airport last week.

A Malindo Air Boeing 737.

Concerns have been raised about another Malaysia-based carrier following an incident at Melbourne airport last week.

Two months after a safety failure involving a Malaysia Airlines’ flight from Brisbane, a Malindo Air flight bound for Denpasar surprised Melbourne air traffic controllers by turning left as the plane took off from runway 34.

When air traffic control ­inquired where the plane was going, there was a long silence ­followed by the pilot’s reply: ­“Indonesia.”

A further inquiry about why the Boeing 737 had turned left ­instead of going straight ahead resulted in a response indicating that the pilots thought they were on a different runway.

Australian pilots yesterday ­expressed their concern that the incident could have easily resulted in a mid-air collision had there been incoming traffic at the time.

Civil Air Australia president and full-time air traffic controller Tom McRobert said the incident certainly had the potential to be “extraordinarily unsafe”.

“Essentially, the aircrew had the correct flight route but the wrong runway keyed into their flight data computer,” he said.

“It meant as they left the runway they veered hard left, which came as a surprise to air traffic control.

“It was just completely unexpected.’’

The runway the crew thought they were on (27) was closed because of strong northerly winds.

Mr McRobert said it was ­expected the crew of the Malindo Air flight would be interviewed to gain a better understanding of what went wrong, but Airservices Australia yesterday said the incident had not been reported.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau was unable to comment due to a public holiday.

Retired airline captain Robert Cassidy said the issue of fatigue should be investigated in relation to such an incident.

It is the second Malaysian carrier to trigger concerns in recent months following a Malaysia Airlines’ incident at Brisbane Airport in July.

The ATSB is investigating why pilots on flight MH138 took off with the pitot tubes covered, leaving the aircraft with no reliable airspeed indication.

Malindo Air, which was set up by Indonesia’s Lion Air, is considered a safe airline despite several incidents over the past five years.

In a previous incident in April, a Malindo Air 737 skidded off the runway at Kathmandu in Nepal and became stuck in the mud, forcing the airport to close for 12 hours.

Malindo Air had not commented by the time of publication last night.

A statement to The Australian from Airservices Australia said they were aware of the incident in Melbourne, in which a Boeing 737 mistakenly took a left turn following take-off.

“ATC intervened to safely manage the incident and we are satisfied that all safety procedures were followed and required reporting completed,” said a spokeswoman.

“There were no runway changes for some time before the incident occurred so that is not considered to be a factor at this stage.”