Description

On 21 July 2007, an Airbus A320-200 being operated by Australian operator Jetstar on a scheduled passenger flight from Christchurch, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia made a go around after an unsuccessful ILS approach to the destination runway in day Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) because of insufficient visual reference at the applicable ILS Decision Height. The go-around procedure was not flown correctly and descent to within 38 ft of the ground occurred in fog before the required climb away was begun. A further unsuccessful approach with a correctly flown go around had then followed before a diversion to Avalon.

The Investigation

An Investigation of the event as a Serious Incident by the ATSB did not commence until 11 September 2007 and was prompted by media interest following the Operator’s failure to fully report the event. The Operator had no awareness of any event until a flight crew report was filed two days later and as this did not disclose the seriousness of the occurrence, this only became apparent during an internal investigation commenced on 2 August. The more serious nature of the event was not disclosed to the ATSB by the Operator until a request following the media interest referred to above.