Virgin plane makes emergency landing at Mildura
Updated
Mildura Airport has commended the crew of a Virgin Australia flight that was forced to make an emergency landing in heavy fog this morning.
The Boeing 737 was carrying 85 passengers and 6 crew on a flight from Brisbane to Adelaide when it was diverted to Mildura because of fog.
Then a second plane, a Qantas flight from Melbourne, was also diverted to the airport.
That caused problems because there was also heavy fog at Mildura.
Mildura Airport chief executive, Bill Burke, says the two planes circled for a while before the Virgin flight declared a formal emergency because it was running low on fuel.
“(It was) quite nasty when they both got here,” he said.
“Unfortunately, (the Virgin) flight was running low on fuel so they had to come in and they declared a formal emergency.
“That was just part of the process but they got in safely. Great work by the crew and excellent flying.”
One passenger says they tried to land but could not because it was too foggy.
“So we quickly went back up again,” he said.
Another man said it was a scary situation.
“When the plane was coming in we were all so close (to landing) then it took off again. So it was pretty nerve-wracking,” he said.
“Then we were told to resume brace position because we were going to go in for a landing and the captain and crew at the back were heads down stay alert.”
The Qantas flight also landed safely.
Topics: accidents, air-and-space, mildura-3500, melbourne-3000, adelaide-5000
First posted
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Passengers on board a flight forced to make an emergency landing in regional Victoria say they were told to brace for a
bumpy landing.
The Virgin Airlines 737, carrying 91 passengers, was travelling from Brisbane but was unable to land in Adelaide due to heavy
fog.
It was diverted to Mildura, but encountered similar issues.
After two aborted attempts to land, the crew made an emergency declaration, and emergency services were sent to the
VIRGIN PLANE MAKES
A further report and the Prime news report.
EMERGENCY LANDING AT
MILDURA AIRPORT
Yahoo!7 with AAP
Updated June 18, 2013, 1:09 pm
The plane landed safely, much to the relief of those on board who were told to brace on touch down.
One passenger told 7News: “When we made a successful landing, the Virgin air hostesses were saying ‘brace now, brace now’.”
Another shaken passenger said it was a ‘nerve-wracking’ situation.
“We were pretty much called to go into brace position because we were going in for a landing,” he said. “The cabin crew at the back were like ‘heads down, stay low’.”
All 85 passengers and six crew members disembarked safely shortly after 10am.
A Virgin Australia spokesman told AAP the request for priority landing was made because the plane was running low on fuel, and because of the difficult weather conditions.
All passengers would be transferred to Adelaide by Tuesday evening, the spokesman said.
A Mildura Airport spokesman said a Qantas flight was also diverted to Mildura on Tuesday and landed without incident.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says it is collecting information about the incident, and may conduct a formal
investigation.