Qatar flight ‘veer off’ takes out lights on Brisbane Airport runway

An investigation is under way after a flight took out four lights after veering off the runway on landing at Brisbane Airport.

A Qatar Airways 777 like the one that took out a series of runway lights on landing at Brisbane Airport. Picture: James Croucher

An investigation is under way into a Qatar Airways flight from Auckland that mowed down several lights when it veered off the main runway of Brisbane Airport on landing.

The legacy runway was closed for almost five hours after the incident on November 30, due to the destruction of four edge lights by the Boeing 777-300ER.

The veer off also damaged the aircraft’s four right main landing gear tyres, deflating at least one tyre, resulting in the plane being towed from the taxiway to the international terminal.

Brisbane Airport issued a notice to airmen (NOTAM) advising of the runway closure, while debris was removed and the landing strip swept.

The broken lights were replaced and the runway was declared serviceable again in the early hours of December 1.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation into the incident was looking at weather conditions at the time of landing, with the flight experiencing heavy rain and turbulence as it approached the runway.

A summary of the incident said as the aircraft descended, the first officer announced they were drifting right of the runway centreline and the captain corrected the deviation.

“As the aircraft was about to touch down under the influence of a variable and gusting crosswind, the aircraft drifted right,” said the ATSB summary.

“The aircraft landed to the right of the runway centreline and shortly after touchdown the right main landing gear contacted and destroyed four runway edge lights positioned on the sealed runway strip.”

As the aircraft returned to the centreline, onboard systems alerted the flight crew of low pressure in one of the right main landing gear tyres.

The plane came to a stop on the taxiway, and an inspection was requested which found damage to four tyres.

No passengers or crew were injured.

The ATSB expected to complete its investigation early next year and deliver a final report by mid-2022.

Qatar Airways did not respond to questions about the incident.

The Gulf carrier began flights into Brisbane at the start of the Covid-19 crisis, after previously being impeded by government limits on services into Australia.

Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker was hopeful the airline would be able to make the Brisbane flights a permanent part of its schedule post-Covid, after Etihad announced its withdrawal from the Queensland capital.

Mr Al Baker said the airline had demonstrated its commitment to Australia by continuing operations throughout the pandemic despite crippling capacity and frequency restrictions.

Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics data for September showed Qatar had the second highest share of any international airline in the Australian market, after Singapore Airlines.

Qatar carried just over 8000 people on its Australian services in September, with an average load factor of under 10 per cent on inbound flights, and 25 per cent on outbound.