ATSB investigate unprecedented level of incidents involving AirAsia Group airlines

Australia’s crash investigator is looking into an unprecedented seven incidents involving Air-Asia Group airlines in the past 20 months. Three of the incidents have involved flights leaving or arriving into Perth, two of which were deemed serious. The two serious incidents involved flying below a minimum safe altitude in February last year while on approach to Perth Airport and engine failure off Carnarvon in June. On Monday, the ATSB confirmed it was investigating a depressurisation event on Indonesian AirAsia Flight QZ535 on Sunday involving an A320 with 152 people aboard travelling from Perth to Bali. The ATSB said that while the descent to 10,000ft from 34,000ft — the altitude at which passengers could breathe without oxygen masks — was disconcerting, “it was standard operating procedure”. Passengers on the Air Asia flight say the crew panicked, making matters worse. Passengers on the Air Asia flight say the crew panicked, making matters worse. “Investigators from the ATSB’s Perth office will conduct a technical examination of the aircraft and the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder will be retrieved and shipped to the ATSB’s Canberra headquarters for downloading and analysis,” it said. It will also interview the crew.<br/>