Christmas Screw-Up – Malaysia Airlines Flew In Wrong Direction Till Pilot Asked Why

MH132 was supposed to fly directly to Malaysia capital Kuala Lumpur. Mysteriously, the Malaysia Airlines took off from Auckland Airport, New Zealand, and flew to somewhere else instead – to Melbourne, Australia. After the missing MH370 and downing of MH17 last year, the last thing the country needs is another disaster on 2015 calendar.

Fortunately, 8-minutes after the plane left at 2:23am on Christmas Day, a Malaysia Airlines pilot realized something was wrong and called air traffic controllers in Auckland to see why the Airbus A330-323X (registration: 9M-MTM) was instructed to fly further south than usual. He wondered why the plane was heading towards Melbourne instead of Kuala Lumpur.

During discussions with air traffic controllers at the Auckland Oceanic control centre, the MH132 pilot was informed of the flight plan his airline had given to Airways, which manages air traffic control for New Zealand and South Pacific. He then continued across the Tasman Sea before heading northwest to Kuala Lumpur.

There were no apparent safety concerns with the flight path and the passengers on-board were not informed nor realized what had happened. However, it is understood that an investigation has been launched. A spokesman was quoted saying an internal safety team would be looking into the matter.

Still, the Malaysia Airlines pilot should be given a raise. New Zealand aviation commentator Peter Clark praised the pilot for his actions – “The pilot has done a very good job by noticing it, querying it and not just blindly flying off and ending up in the Southern Ocean”. Still, whose fault was it for the minor screw-up, if it can be considered one in the first place?

Clark offered his reason – “Flights on the route often travel around the bottom of Australia to avoid bad weather or head-winds. Thus, the pilot was probably not used to going that far south“. But after the missing MH370 without any success of finding it until today, it’s always a best practice to query whenever in doubt, especially the Malaysia Airlines’ pilots, before it’s too late.

A spokeswoman from New Zealand’s Airways Corporation said – “The flight plan that the airline has filed with us was slightly different to the flight plan that the pilot was expecting to follow. So obviously he had a slightly different flight plan on board. Basically what that meant was the turn-off point at which he would leave New Zealand air space was in a different place to the one that we had for him.”

A check with FlightRadar24 showed MH132 had indeed deviated from its path. It landed at 23:52 on December 25, 2015, as compared to the scheduled time of arrival of 23:25. Nevertheless, it was a good start that the Malaysia Airlines pilot showed to the world that they didn’t sleep on the job, at least not after the company restructuring. -financetwitter