Go-round

Qantas A330 autoland emergency at Perth

With only 30 minutes of fuel remaining over minimum reserves, and unable to reach an alternate airport, a Qantas Airbus A330-300 was forced to declare an emergency and resort to an automatic landing in darkness and fog at Perth in the early hours of September 16 last year, according to a recently released Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report.

Despite not being approved for instrument approaches to lower minima than Category I (800 metres and a decision height of 200 feet), Perth Airport’s Runway 21 ILS enabled the aircraft to make a successful landing in fog that had reduced visibility to only about 400 metres. The automatic landing averted an extremely hazardous situation for the aircraft and all its occupants.