A VietJet Air flight operating from Ho Chi Minh City to Melbourne, Australia has declared an emergency in the last few moments.
Flight VJ81 initiated a descent and direct return to Ho Chi Minh City not long after departure.
Updates will follow.
VietJet VJ81 Ho Chi Minh City-Melbourne
VietJet Air flight VJ81 declared an emergency with squawk code 7700 not long after departure from Ho Chi Minh City. The flight is presently initiating a return to the origin airport.
The nature of the emergency prompting the early return is not yet known.
Descent and Emergency Declaration
Flight VJ81 conducted a fairly rapid descent from FL320 (32,000) before declaring the emergency. The flight descended below 10,000 feet and flight crew then squawked transponder code 7700.
At the time of the code 7700 transmission, the aircraft had levelled off at 9,000 feet.
The aircraft is currently holding off the coast, which may be for fuel dumping purposes before the early return landing.
Holding is being conducted at an altitude of 7,000 feet.
Exited Holding Pattern
VietJet flight VJ81 has now left the holding pattern and is continuing an approach to Ho Chi Minh City Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN). The aircraft is presently descending through 4,000 feet for its return.
Approach SGN
Weather for the flight’s return is current visual conditions (VFR), with visibility 10 kilometers or more, with a 5,000 foot cloudbase. The active runway for the return is RWY25.
VietJet flight is now establishing on finals for SGN RWY25.
Landed SGN
VietJet flight VJ81, an A330 originally heading to Melbourne, has landed safely at Ho Chi Minh City’s runway 25 (SGN RWY25) after an emergency declaration earlier today.
The aircraft conducting today’s VJ81 rotation to Melbourne (MEL) was an Airbus A330-300 registered VN-A815. This is an 8.5 year old widebody aircraft belonging to the carrier VietJet Air.
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