Lack of fuel forces Qantas jet to land in heavy fog

[oz_mark]

From News: Lack of fuel forces Qantas jet to land in heavy fog | NEWS.com.au

A QANTAS international flight was forced to land in heavy fog in Perth because the plane didn't have enough fuel to fly to a safer location, an investigation has found.


The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said Qantas’s fuel policy did not allow for pilots to land in a different runway if conditions were dangerous at Perth Airport.

[maninblack]

This is interesting. What is the alternate for Perth? RAAF Pearce? But this would be fogged in too, but okay for other emergencies. KGI runway is under 6000ft. GET, 6500ft? and these are both far away. Albany also under 6000ft. I mean its a long way to Adelaide!

Apparently the alternate is Learmonth...er thats 2 hours north...makes you wonder.

[oz_mark]

This is interesting. What is the alternate for Perth? RAAF Pearce? But this would be fogged in too, but okay for other emergencies. KGI runway is under 6000ft. GET, 6500ft? and these are both far away. Albany also under 6000ft. I mean its a long way to Adelaide!

Apparently the alternate is Learmonth...er thats 2 hours north...makes you wonder.

Most international arrivals into Perth are form the North, and there are landings at Learmonth from time to time, assuming the decision is made while you have enough fuel to get there

I think Pearce would be too small - large military aircraft have been known to use Perth. There are not lots of airports in WA where you can land a widebody.

ATSB report: 200605473

[straitman]

Most international arrivals into Perth are form the North, and there are landings at Learmonth from time to time, assuming the decision is made while you have enough fuel to get there

I think Pearce would be too small - large military aircraft have been known to use Perth. There are not lots of airports in WA where you can land a widebody.

ATSB report: 200605473

Not sure about Pearce being too small though. I've seen many KC135 & DC10 size a/c there over the years and even a B1 bomber.

Having said that the lack of facilities could have been interesting. Also Pearce often has a different weather pattern than Perth.

[NM]

Technically, a flight should carry enough fuel to get to its planned destination and then still be able to make it to a suitable alternate airport. So even though it often known well before arrival that a diversion is required and a PER-destined flight could divert to Learmonth (if from North) or ADL (if from East), this would not help if PER suddenly became unavailable as the flight was on final approach, such as may be the case if the flight ahead was unable to clear the runway (perhaps due to a wheels-up landing or some other incident).

[oz_mark]

Not sure about Pearce being too small though. I've seen many KC135 & DC10 size a/c there over the years and even a B1 bomber.

I checked, they can - but they often fly down to Perth to refuel!!

[NM]

I checked, they can - but they often fly down to Perth to refuel!!

And isn't that exactly what a diverted A330 would do? I expect the RAAF will land a KC30 there at some stage.

[maninblack]

Technically, a flight should carry enough fuel to get to its planned destination and then still be able to make it to a suitable alternate airport. So even though it often known well before arrival that a diversion is required and a PER-destined flight could divert to Learmonth (if from North) or ADL (if from East), this would not help if PER suddenly became unavailable as the flight was on final approach, such as may be the case if the flight ahead was unable to clear the runway (perhaps due to a wheels-up landing or some other incident).

And what about flights coming from the west?

Or when circumstances change suddenly as you point out.

RAAF Pearce has a main runway over 8000ft and could handle widebody aircraft in an emergency but doesn't have many of the sophisticated technical systems Perth has...and yes the B1 has visited there.

Here is a bit of interesting reading. 200201556

[NM]

And what about flights coming from the west?

Makes no difference which direction the flight is coming from. They should carry enough fuel to reach the planned destination and THEN to divert to an alternate if required. The only comments about approaching from the north or east was regarding an early decision to divert, thus saving flying all the way to PER and then looking for long enough piece of lack stuff to put it down.

[meloz]

I believe Meekatharra (MKR) is a viable alternate for PER. 400 miles away and 7100 ft of rwy.