Vietjet A320 at Nha Trang on Jun 19th 2014, landed at wrong airport

Last Update: June 23, 2014 / 14:35:58 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jun 19, 2014

Classification
Incident

Flight number
VJ-8861

Destination
Dalat, Vietnam

Aircraft Registration
VN-A692

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

A Vietjet Air Airbus A320-200, registration VN-A692 performing flight VJ-8861 from Hanoi to Dalat (Vietnam) with nearly 200 passengers, departed Hanoi at about 17:10L (scheduled departure from gate at 15:45L) transponding callsign VJC8575 and landed at Nha Trang's Cam Ranh Airport (Vietnam), about 55nm northeast of Dalat, at about 19:00L (12:00Z) following what appeared to be an uneventful flight.

Passengers reported they were astonished as they could not recognize the airport as their home airport after landing until they discovered they were put down about 140km from their home town. No announcements had been made by the crew, that the aircraft was being diverted.

In the meantime Vietjet's flight VJ-8575 (callsign VJC8575) from Hanoi to Nha Trang with scheduled departure at 16:35L did not depart from Hanoi despite past scheduled departure time, the nearly 200 passengers were waiting for departure in the departure lounge.

Vietnam's Authorities opened an investigation into what appears to be a serious error and required Vietjet to explain the occurrence assuming flights 8861 and 8575 were confused on the ground, the similiar number of passengers contributing to the error.

Vietjet reported initially that the crew did not deem the weather at Dalat suitable for landing and therefore diverted to Cam Ranh Airport.

Late Jun 22nd 2014 the airline corrected their earlier statement now saying, that a miscommunication between dispatcher and flight crew caused VN-A692 to land at the wrong airport. Due to the break down of another aircraft VN-A692 was rerouted to perform flight 8861 to Dalat, everybody was accordingly informed except the flight crew. The captain however failed to notice that he had not received a flight manifest from dispatch nor did he read the load sheet showing flight 8861, nor did he inquire with dispatch, hence he followed the original plan and conducted flight 8575.

Following landing at Cam Ranh Airport VN-A692 flew to Dalat delivering the passengers to their destination, picking up the passengers waiting for the return flight VJ-8862 and returned to Hanoi now correctly transponding callsign VJC8862.

Dalat's Lien Khuong Airport offers a runway 09/27 of 3,250 meters/11,560 feet length.

No Metars and local weather data for Dalat are available.

Metars Cam Ranh Airport:
VVCR 191500Z 20009KT 9999 FEW015 SCT050 26/24 Q1006 NOSIG
VVCR 191430Z 23008KT 9999 FEW013 SCT040 26/25 Q1006 NOSIG
VVCR 191330Z 29010KT 9999 -RA FEW013 SCT040 26/24 Q1007 NOSIG
VVCR 191100Z 23012KT 8000 -RA FEW017 BKN050 32/25 Q1005 TEMPO 4000 RA
VVCR 191030Z 14005KT 9999 FEW017 BKN050 33/24 Q1005 NOSIG
VVCR 191000Z 14004KT 9999 FEW017 BKN050 34/24 Q1004 NOSIG
VVCR 190930Z 13003KT 9999 FEW017 BKN050 34/22 Q1004 NOSIG
VVCR 190900Z 13004KT 9999 FEW017 BKN050 34/22 Q1004 NOSIG
VVCR 190830Z 13005KT 9999 FEW017 BKN050 35/22 Q1004 NOSIG
VVCR 190800Z 13008KT CAVOK 35/21 Q1004 NOSIG
VVCR 190730Z 13008KT CAVOK 36/21 Q1004 NOSIG
VVCR 190700Z 13009KT CAVOK 36/21 Q1004 NOSIG
VVCR 190630Z 13009KT CAVOK 36/21 Q1004 NOSIG
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jun 19, 2014

Classification
Incident

Flight number
VJ-8861

Destination
Dalat, Vietnam

Aircraft Registration
VN-A692

Aircraft Type
Airbus A320

ICAO Type Designator
A320

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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