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2 October, 2019

Investigation finds Tigerair flight crew mishap saw plane fly unpressurised

A Tigerair flight flew with its cabin unpressurised, an ATSB investigation has found.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report has revealed a Tigerair flight from Sydney to Melbourne, last year, flew in part with its cabin unpressurised due to a flight crew oversight.

“During pre-flight preparation, the crew did not correctly configure air conditioning pack switches and did not identify the error following take-off,” the report, which was released late last month, found.

According to the findings of the report, this saw an altitude warning occur as the Boeing 737-800 passed 13,500 feet unpressurised. The flight crew then identified the problem and reset the pack switches and the aircraft descended to 10,000 feet.

After a short time, cabin pressurisation was under control and the flight crew continued the flight to Melbourne.

The ATSB found the incorrect configuration of the aircraft’s pressurisation system resulted in cabin altitude rising above 10,000 feet. Normal procedures and checklists, designed to ensure the aircraft is correctly configured for flight, were not completed due to a number of factors, the ATSB found, including “training, distraction, high workload, low expectancy of error” and “supervision lapses”.

In an emailed statement to Travel Weekly, a Tigerair spokesperson said the airline has been cooperating with the ATSB throughout the investigation and has since applied several safety measures in response to the incident and the government organisation’s findings.

“These included implementing additional training programs, reviewing our current checklists and operating procedures, and providing additional safety notifications to our pilots.

“The safety of our passengers, crew and aircraft is always our number one priority and we are always striving to reinforce safety procedures,” the airline spokesperson said.

ATSB noted that Tigerair has taken proactive safety action in response to the incident, including a review of safety pilot requirements and the Boeing 737 checklist, as well as introducing additional pressurisation event training.

Tiger has also established a program with its parent airline, Virgin Australia, to conduct line training for Boeing 737 pilots in order to ensure crew have continuous training required to embed skills and knowledge.

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