Jetstar A321 at Melbourne on Oct 29th 2015, difficulty to rotate aircraft for takeoff

Last Update: January 18, 2019 / 17:46:38 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Oct 29, 2015

Classification
Incident

Airline
Jetstar Airways

Flight number
JQ-976

Departure
Melbourne, Australia

Destination
Perth, Australia

Aircraft Registration
VH-VWT

Aircraft Type
Airbus A321

ICAO Type Designator
A321

A Jetstar Airbus A321-200, registration VH-VWT performing flight JQ-976 from Melbourne,VI to Perth,WA (Australia), was accelerating for takeoff from Melbourne's runway 16 when the crew needed to apply nearly full back pressure on the side stick to rotate the aircraft. The aircraft climbed out to safety, the flight crew requested cabin crew to count the passengers on board and note down their seat distribution. The results were recalculated and the flight crew found, that the aircraft had been outside the aircraft's loading limits. The passengers were redistributed within the cabin to bring the center of gravity back into the aircraft's envelope. The flight continued to Perth for a safe landing.

On Dec 3rd 2015 Australia's TSB rated the occurrence a serious incident and opened an investigation, the final report is being estimated for October 2016.

On Jan 18th 2019 the ATSB reported that the investigation was discontinued. The ATSB argued that the organisational context within the operator had changed significantly in the last 3 years and any finding would thus no longer match the current situation.

In the event summary the ATSB stated: "It was later established that passenger seating allocations had been determined using the seat map for an A320 instead of an A321." After reseating 6 passengers to the aft cabin the crew recomputed weight and balance and proceeded for an uneventful remainder of the flight.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Oct 29, 2015

Classification
Incident

Airline
Jetstar Airways

Flight number
JQ-976

Departure
Melbourne, Australia

Destination
Perth, Australia

Aircraft Registration
VH-VWT

Aircraft Type
Airbus A321

ICAO Type Designator
A321

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