It has emerged that an AirAsiaX Airbus A330 diverted to Hong Kong twice in a 24 hour period due to engine problems.
Such an incident involved the same aircraft, operating flights to South Korea and Japan.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Engine Problems Twice in Hong Kong…
HS-XTG – The AirAsia Aircraft Involved in the Issues…
As per The Aviation Herald, it is understood that the Thai AirAsiaX Airbus A330 involved in two diversions in 24 hours at Hong Kong is HS-XTG.
Planespotters.net states that HS-XTG is a 18.4 year old Airbus A330-300 that started out life with China Eastern Airlines in January 2006.
In April 2018, the aircraft was handed over to Thai AirAsiaX.
Of the A330-300 variant, the Thai subsidiary to the airline has seven in the fleet, of which all are in active service.
Furthermore, average fleet age for the variant at the airline stands at 15.4 years.
Flight #1 – XJ701 – Seoul to Bangkok…
Thai AirAsiaX flight XJ701 is a routine scheduled flight between Seoul and Bangkok, which was the first of two diversions into Hong Kong.
It departed from Seoul at 1116 local time on April 14.
The Aviation Herald reports that the crew descended the Airbus A330 to FL340 from FL400 amid engine issues.
From there, the crew opted for a diversion into HKG due to this issue, but didn’t declare an emergency at the time.
Thai AirAsiaX flight XJ701 landed safely into Hong Kong at 1517 local time the same day.
Furthermore, it is understood the aircraft was grounded for over 12 hours, before repositioning back to Bangkok.
Flight #2 – XJ611 – Osaka to Bangkok…
Then, earlier today (April 15), HS-XTG operated another flight which was affected.
This time, it was the Thai AirAsiaX flight XJ611 between Osaka and Bangkok.
Once again, as per The Aviation Herald, they suffered engine problems near Hong Kong, which forced another diversion.
The descent profiles were similar, initially dropping from FL400 to FL300 amid this issue.
From there, the AirAsiaX Airbus A330 landed safely into Hong Kong at 2318 local time today.
HS-XTG Still Grounded…
Data from RadarBox shows that HS-XTG is still grounded in Hong Kong following the incidents on the AirAsiaX flights.
At this stage, it is unclear how long the aircraft will stay in HKG for, before positioning back to Bangkok.
The expectation is that this issue will be fixed to a better standard this time, to prevent the same issue happening again.
But for now, all eyes will be on when the aircraft will return back to commercial service.
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