ZK-BEU

Jetstar is apologising to more than 170 passengers delayed for 13 hours on a flight from Melbourne to Christchurch.

The flight is now on its way to Christchurch after fog forced it to divert to Wellington just after midnight.

Jetstar spokeswoman Andrea Wait says a special flight was arranged to get the passengers to Christchurch this morning, but there was a problem with the pilot's accreditation for flying out of Wellington.

She says the airline apologises to customers for the delay. Ms Wait says the passengers were accommodated in hotels overnight and compensated with meal and travel vouchers.


It seems a little incredulous that JQ's pilot was not accredited to fly out of Wellington. I'm assuming either he was an Oz based pilot caught out by the diversion in which case was he accredited to land in the first place or was he an NZ based pilot but not accredited for wellington which seems even more suprising.

ZK-BEU

og

This sounds a lot better than the JQ horror stories that are circulating.

shillard

I say! These low-cost carriers are enough to make one choke on one's cucumber sandwiches!

vbroucek

Diverted - meaning basically emergency landing (could not go to normal destination, would not be safe etc), so acreditted or not could land. The departure is of course different story...

OrvilleWright

Indeed. If both pilots "ate the fish" and passed out, a private pilot in the back can raise his hand and say "Me! Me!" and maybe land the plane. But he KNOWS better than to offer to sit in the pilot's seat for the next leg.

vbroucek

I was going to say the same - I would attempt to land it (and I am sure successfully) with my private licence if necessary, but would stay away later on :-)

Lonely Flyer

The captain made a decision either:

1. Because he only had enough fuel to divert to Wellington and could not make Auckland; or

2. He forgot Wellington was a c grade airport requiring an intro flight or sim accreditation; or

3. He just plain just did it and realised later that he had better not fly out as well.

shillard

"The sun? What is it?"

"It's a big firey ball at the centre of our solar system - but that's not important right now."

cavemanzk

If he made it to WLG, he should have been able to make it to PMR.

Blackcloud

I did not think that PMR would have been open at that time of night, customs and immigration does not exist there anymore.
I did not realise that WLG required special certification and if he did manage to land that night he met the biggest challenge of landing due to the winds. For WLG with the short runway if take offs were to the north, they were that morning, I guess the biggest issue is the procedures for a one engine take off to clear the surrounding terrain, runway too short to stop.

Kiwi Flyer

AFAIK WLG certification is due to the proximity of the hills to the airport, in particular at Newlands. The initial climb is both steeper than normal and restricted horizontally.

jb747

Ah, said by someone who has never actually tried to handle an Airbus. Flying experience is the worst thing you can have....

BD1959

Wouldn't any "take-off" restrictions also apply to the landing? Wouldn't those hills still be there should the flight have to go-around when it attempted the landing at Wellington?

I'd have thought that the alternate would have been nominated at time of Flight Planning - not when Christchurch became a no-go. Any crew restrictions in relation to Wellington should have been identified before the flight left Melbourne.


BD

vbroucek

I actually have two hours of 320 simulator - done in Toulouse, France during my short IT stint with BEA there...

Blackcloud

I had 1 hour on the NZ A320 simulator and 3 hours on the commercial 737-800 simulator.
Both are very different but I wonder if jb747 comments are from a Boeing Pilot not wanting to swap teams to the Airbus.
From talking to pilots who have flown both, most favour the Boeings over Airbus due to the difference they have towards flight management and cockpit interfaces.
My simulator experience I prefer the A320 (actually F15 but that is another story), of course as jb747 states I really have little real flying experience, total 5.4 hours for a PPL, which I doubt I will ever get.