Virgin Australia B738 at Mildura on Jun 18th 2013, landed below weather minima and substantially below final fuel reserve

A Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800, registration VH-YIR performing flight VA-1384 from Brisbane,QL to Adelaide,SA (Australia) with 85 passengers and 6 crew, had been dispatched with a weather forecast, that indicated clear weather in Adelaide with no necessity to plan for an alternate aerodrome, the crew departed with sufficient fuel to arrive at Adelaide with 2500 kg of fuel remaining giving them about 30 minutes of flying time on top of the required final reserve. When the aircraft was about to reach the top of descent and after being handed off to the next sector, the controller asked whether the crew was aware of the fog in Adelaide, the crew replied in the negative and immediately began to collect information about weather including a number of alternate aerodromes. The weather forecast for Mildura,VI (Australia) indicated visibility above 10km with a broken cloud layer at 3900 feet. Based on these informations the crew decided, that they needed to divert at a point 90km ahead of Adelaide in order to arrive at Mildura with 2000kg of fuel remaining. The crew contacted Adelaide tower to obtain information about current weather, then decided to divert to Mildura.

Due to the reported cloud layer the crew elected to perform a DME arrival and perform a visual approach to Midura's runway 27. As precaution the crew also loaded the RNAV instrument approach for runway 27 into the FMS. The crew followed their plan and was on approach to Mildura, when they heard a preceding Saab 340 go-around due to fog and divert to Broken Hill. As the aircraft descended it became clear the weather was substantially different than reported, and abandoned the plan to carry out a visual approach.

A Qantas Boeing 737-800 registration VH-VYK, also diverting from Adelaide, reported on frequency on approach to Mildura and inquired intentions, see Incident: Qantas B738 at Mildura on Jun 18th 2013, landed below weather minima. The crews determined that the Qantas aircraft had even less fuel than VH-YIR, hence the crew of VH-YIR decided to delay their approach and permit the VYK land first. Following the RNAV runway 27 approach VH-VYK landed safely and advised they had become visual with the runway at 150 feet below MDA (MDA 660 feet MSL, 493 feet AGL), the visibility then was 3000 meters.

The crew of VH-YIR advised that they would need to land at Mildura due to insufficient fuel to divert and would need to declare emergency within 10 minutes and checked with VH-VYK whether runway lights were on and for the actual QNH, then the crew began their RNAV runway 27 approach planning for a MDA of 300 feet MSL (137 feet AGL, official MDA 660 feet MSL). The aircraft entered fog at about 800 feet MSL, the visibility ahead of the aircraft virtually disappeared. The captain was pilot flying concentrating on flying the aircraft with the first officer visually assessing their position over ground. The first officer recalled that he looked down through the right hand window to get any ground reference. Just when the captain called for go-around the first officer sighted the threshold and during the go-around the crossing runway 18/36.

During the climb following the go-around the aircraft became visual again at 800 feet, the aircraft joined a right hand traffic circuit. The crew assessed they were committed to land on their next approach no matter what. The crew briefed cabin crew and raised their seats in order to improve downward visibility from the cockpit. The crew positioned for another RNAV runway 27 approach, descending through 600 feet MSL the crew instructed "BRACE BRACE BRACE" to passengers, the first officer noticed the same ground features he saw during the first approach.

When the first officer assessed they were over the runway, however being unable to determine how far down, he heard the captain disconnect the autopilot and fly the aircraft onto ground for a firm touch down. Following touchdown the crew got better visual cues and conducted normal roll out and taxi procedures. After vacating the runway the captain advised cabin crew they were on the ground and the emergency was over.

On Jul 18th 2013 the ATSB released their preliminary report stating the aircraft landed with 535kg of fuel remaining, well below required final fuel reserve.

On Dec 19th 2013 the ATSB released an interim report to introduce a two safety actions taken by the ATSB: a safety forum with respect to provision of operational information is planned and analysis of reliability of weather forecasts is being conducted.

The investigation of both events of VH-YIR and VH-VYK, rated serious incidents, is ongoing.

Weather forecast for Mildura at flight briefing:

Mildura TAF

TAF AMD YMIA 171758Z 1718/1812

24005KT 9999 SCT030 BKN060

BECMG 1718/1720 21006KT 9999 SCT006 SCT030

BECMG 1800/1802 18010KT 9999 SCT030 SCT050

BECMG 1807/1809 16008KT 9999 SCT040

TEMPO 1719/1724 BKN006

RMK

T 06 05 07 13 Q 1016 1018 1020 1019

Mildura METAR