A Qantas Airways Ltd. flight bound for Fiji on Thursday turned back to Sydney because of a potential problem with a device that stops airspeed sensors freezing over and malfunctioning.
(Bloomberg) — A Qantas Airways Ltd. flight bound for Fiji on Thursday turned back to Sydney because of a potential problem with a device that stops airspeed sensors freezing over and malfunctioning.
The pilots of Flight QF101 received a fault indicator relating to the heating element in one of the three pitot tubes on the outside of the aircraft, Qantas said. The sensors work by measuring the air rushing onto them during flight.
Planes can still fly safely in clear weather when the pitot tubes aren’t heated. But sub-zero temperatures and cloud can cause the sensors to ice up and provide faulty data if they aren’t warmed properly. The pitot probes on QF101 worked normally throughout the flight, Qantas said.
The plane returned to Sydney to have the device replaced because there was poor weather forecast around Fiji at the time, Qantas said. The Boeing Co. 737 jet has since returned to service.
Pitot airspeed sensors gained prominence after the crash of Air France Flight 447 in 2009. En route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro in poor weather, the crew started to receive faulty speed readings, likely from frozen pitot tubes. The pilots stalled the aircraft and minutes later, it hit the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board.
The incident on QF101 was one of at least four midair mechanical issues, including three turnarounds, to hit Qantas this week.
On Friday, two flights turned back to Melbourne — a Canberra-bound plane with a problem with its flaps, and a Sydney-bound jet with an indication of a minor engine problem.
In the most serious development, a Qantas jet on its way to Sydney from Auckland on Wednesday issued a mayday and shut down one of its engines. The aircraft landed safely at Sydney and all 145 passengers disembarked normally.
Three of the planes involved in the incidents were Boeing 737s, the workhorse of Qantas’s Australian fleet. The fourth was a Boeing 717.
The close timing of the incidents gives ammunition to Qantas critics who argue its planes are too old — some have been in service for 20 years — and claim that Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce cut costs too deeply during the pandemic. Qantas is renewing its domestic fleet over the next decade.
At the same time, the precautions taken by the pilots also highlight a safety culture that’s meant Qantas has never had a fatal jet airliner accident. The carrier said the return to Sydney of the Fiji flight showed its safety-management system working as it should.
The Qantas Group, which includes low-cost airline Jetstar, averages about 60 midair turnbacks each year, meaning it would normally have just over one a week. Qantas said there are also 400 to 500 engine shutdowns across all narrowbody jets every year.
“Across aviation, there are diversions and air turnbacks happening every day for a range of reasons,” Qantas Domestic CEO Andrew David said. “They usually reflect an abundance of caution.”
(Updates with details of another mechanical issue and number of turnbacks a year.)
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