Malaysia Airlines A330 was forced to return to Beijing with pressurization issues

The incident with regards to the pressurization issues of a Malaysian Airlines flight MH319 was reported in the Aviation Herald. The Airbus A330-300 which was registered as 9M-MTG departed from Daxing Airport in Beijing yesterday, January 1, 2020.

Malaysian Airlines flight MH319 is scheduled to depart from Daxing to Kuala Lumpur at 09:30 daily. Flight duration is approximately six and a half hours.

To give you further details regarding this incident, as per the Aviation Herald, the aircraft experienced pressurization issues as it climbs out of Beijing. The pilots in-charge were stopping the ascent at 2,800 meters. Besides, a passenger added on the report that there was a work done on a door seal just before the scheduled departure.

As it levels off, the Airbus A330-300 circled to the west of Beijing, burning fuels. Fortunately, it was then landed safely back in Beijing after approximately two and a half hours. The issues were repaired and the said aircraft was able to take off and finally completed its flight to Kuala Lumpur. It landed later in the evening, exactly six hours late than the scheduled arrival time. The good news is that no passengers nor crew were injured on the said incident.

Overall, Malaysia Airlines has 24 A330 aircraft and the 9M-MTG is only seven and a half years old. The majority of this carrier’s fleet operates short and medium-haul flights around the Asia Pacific region. As per research, this is the first time that this aircraft has been involved in any given incidents. The Federal Administration Aviation has recently downgraded Malaysia’s safety rating from category one to two which was the reflection on local aviation safety not by the local airlines.

If you were to analyze the two most tarnished incidents on Malaysia Airlines, both of them are due to unforeseen human shortcoming rather than the so-called glitch on the safety per se. In 2014, a surface to air missile launched out of Ukraine took down a Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777-200ER. It has 298 casualties to be exact. Months before, another Malaysia Airlines 777 had disappeared off the radar and since then was never seen again. Such an incident is attributed to a pilot gone rogue. But before that, in 1995, a Malaysian Airlines’ Fokker 50 overshot a runway in Sabah with 34 casualties and reported that pilot error was to blame.