Tom/PER

FR24 confirms OD215 diverted to KL...

Mods feel free to delete if not appropriate. OD215 which has not long taken off from KUL enroute to BOM appears to be descending and returning. Flight being operated by -LCG, looks like an immediate turn-back not long after take-off. Doesn't appear to be flying circuits to reduce weight either.

There's some images of the engine of the Facebook group: Australian Aircraft Photographers, which show the extent of the damage. There's bird remains evident and a large chunk is taken missing off one of the fanblades. Undoubtedly another engine change.

Yep engine fire on take-off, pics are beginning to circulate in social media.

Unconfirmed reports that D7 207 -XXT flying the OOL-KUL sector has diverted to BNE with a technical issue, possibly an engine issue. It's only occured in the last hour and so details are still sketchy.

Chandran Rama Muthy showed up in Perth the other week when (PK) Batik commenced DPS-PER-DPS services, which surprised me. Has he changed positions?

OD8115 currently enroute KUL-XCH (Christmas Island), I've not seen this flight pop up before, although I do recall Malindo once touted flights to XCH. Being operated by -LNR. Any ideas?

All good @flee, I follow you. A lot of good can come out of this incident and a lot of benefit from subsequent investigations which are currently taking place. I do fear the CASA one with be scathing though. It also needs to be kept in perspective how D7 handled the immediate aftermath of the incident reports differ greatly dependant on the passengers interviewed. Engines fail from time to time it's inevitable, unfortunately for Rolls Royce they seem to be currently experiencing a higher than expected failure rate. Air Asia/D7's PR machine I believe can still turn this incident around. What will be interesting is the extent of the damage and whether with the way -XXE was shaking the correct decision was made to return back to Perth 2 hours south on the one remaining engine, when there were closer suitable airports. Hindsight is a wonder thing.

I believe it's a culture clash, I think it's fair to say Australians aren't as religious as other ethnicities. Also recent tragedies involving Malaysian and Air Asia are still firmly in people's minds. The media here also here is a contributing factor as they consistently come up with sensational headlines and incidents receive significant air-time. We've also got a well-known aviation 'expert' in this country who likes to justify his ego and trawl the internet for historic events each time an incident occurs and is of the belief that low cost carriers are cutting corners and saving costs, thus jeopardizing safety. But it's fair to say Malaysian carriers sadly, don't have a glowing reputation in this country with exception of OD who seem to of do-far successfully managed to fly under the radar.

-XXE is still sat broken in Perth, awaiting an engine and possibly pylon change too.

It's at least 3 aircraft grounded as -LNL is still waiting for a flap assembly. Don't believe it's flown since April. FR24 reveals lots of late running flights this evening. OD1005 from BKI is nearly 12hrs behind schedule.

When I was flying back to SIN from KL on OD801 earlier this month I was in 1A and there was a discrepancy when the head-count was conducted. Turned out there was an additional pax on-board and the FA's were confused whether it was because of infants. To cut a long story and the now expected Malindo delays, when the seating manifest was cross-checked turns out a passenger possibly of Bangladeshi origin had mistakenly managed to board the wrong flight, his flight was OD151 to Perth which left from the gate alongside! I felt quite sorry and sympathetic for him as I watched the PER flight push back on-time so who knows what happened with his luggage, which I thought had to be offloaded in the event of a no-show. I reported matter to OD customer care when I received my 'Thank you for flying with Malindo Air' email and received a generic email in response. Still waiting visual confirmation on -LNC and D but nothing delivered factrory fresh after -LNZ has IFE so -LCK, LCL, LCM and LCP has IFE fitted. -LNZ definitely has IFE installed it's the late 2016/17 deliveries that don't have it installed due to a supposed vendor supply issue. When the first A333 due for Melbourne flights?

Just checked FR24 then and it lists 11 OD flights currently active, 9 of those 11 flights are in excess of 2hrs behind schedule, the exceptions being OD155/267. I can't check the Jeddah flight OD267 as the app doesn't bring up any flight data.

LEA is where the infamous QF72 made its emergency landing also I have vague recollections of an Air Asia X flight landing there back in 2011/12 to refuel whilst enroute to Perth. The runway is in excess of 3000m.

https://youtu.be/nkAKFx-kc9E Hopefully that link works courtesy of the pprune forum. The plane is violently juddering, lots of questions being asked as to why the flight crew didn't divert to Learmonth which was a lot closer. Pilots comments over the PA are clearly audible too - CASA are investigating the incident too.

D7 are also copping a flogging in the media as the captain allegedly asked passengers to 'pray' for a safe landing and said 'he'll be saying a prayer himself', it's all the news here. This one is certainly going to take a while to blow over.

I've seen images of the failed #1 engine on -XXE and can confirm it was a fan blade separation in the cruise. People are jumping all over Air Asia on social media but I'm not sure how this can be attributed to them. On face value it looks like a clear case of fatigue on the blade and just unfortunate it happened to a D7 plane. AK/D7's image is going to take a beating in Australia as a result of this, especially after the incident involving the A333 near Ayres Rock a while back with an engine failure. Meanwhile -XXW is currently enroute to PER as D7688 operating the rescue mission. The damage engine windmilling inflight would be the cause of those clattering noises in the videos currently being circulated on social media too. Just out of interest who maintains D7's RR Trents, do they have a 'pay by the hour' agreement with Rolls Royce, are they maintained by MH or even done internally? I know they do send A333 heavy maintenance to either GA at Jakarta or Lufthansa joint-venture in Manila more recently.

Scrub that regarding LNW it's operating a delayed OD151 down to PER.

Interesting...LCM which I flew KL-PEN last month is another which is equipped with the overhead liferafts so theoretically another ETDO aircraft but unsure if it's currently certified, but it's solely operating regional flights. Whereas LCK isn't equipped with them. LNT visited Perth last night on the overnight OD155/156, just for some variety. Nice to see something else here apart from LNV and LNY. LNW used to be a regular but since it's recent maintenance visit seems to be shying away from Perth.

Can you check -LND too as it's recently been operating longer flights to mostly TRZ and TRV, compared to the others it doesn't do a great deal of domestic flying compared to the other non IFE birds -LCK, L, M and P. Just checked and for the second time this week it's operating to BNE via DPS.

Why order A320CEO's and not NEO's? To me it's like ordering the previous model of a car. If their coming off the same production line, can't they just be built to NEO spec?

So what about the rumoured OD services to SYD and MEL once 'if' their A333's arrive later this year? Does this dispelled this rumour and provide an indication that they'll be used on Jeddah flights? There was a posting on a well known pilots forum earlier that OD were going to do trans Tasman services via an Aussie port.

http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/273431/malaysia-airlines-ends-darwin-service-in-late-july-2017/ DRW flights cancelled from the end of July..

Where are the actual leased frames being sourced from? So far I've read TK, SQ, QR and Alitalia.

Why does MAS have to order factory fresh planes. Would it not make more financial sense to pick up some later build A330's to add to their exsisting relatively modern fleet?