Description

On 15 May 2013, the crew of an ATR 72-600 (VH-FVR) being operated by Virgin Australia Regional Airlines on a scheduled passenger flight from Brisbane to Moranbah continued their day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) descent in the circuit in Class 'G' airspace in order to remain clear of cloud and so complete a visual approach to land but in doing so came into sufficient proximity with terrain for a number of GPWS/TAWS alerts/warnings to be triggered.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). It was established that the aircraft commander had been promoted to the rank of Captain four days earlier and had since flown 3.5 hours in command on the ATR72. He had about 4530 flying hours of which about 1750 were on the ATR72. The First Officer had about 2880 flying hours of which just over 600 were on the ATR72. This crew pairing was within Company requirements for new Captains.

It was noted that the Moranbah TAF available to and reviewed by the crew prior to departure from Brisbane at 0532 local time indicated that from 0600, Cloud was expected to be FEW at 1000 feet and BKN at 4500 feet with visibility 10 km. A 30% probability of fog and a visibility of 800 metres was also included in the TAF. A SPECI present weather report issued at 0700 gave the actual visibility as 1000 metres.