Wrong Direction: Malaysian Airlines flight took a detour

A Malaysian Airlines flight from New Zealand to Kuala Lumpur took a slight detour during its latest flight causing some confusion between the pilot and the air traffic controller. The Airbus A330 is currently grounded for some internal safety investigation and report from the pilot has also been taken.

According to the Express, the pilot noticed the diversion from the path just 8 minutes into its flight and immediately notified the ground control team. According to the log report, the pilot was reported to have asked the traffic controller on duty regarding why their flight was heading towards Melbourne instead of north towards Malaysia.

During the Christmas day event, the passenger on board of the Airbus was not notified as to avoid panic among passengers. The pilot was praised for handling the situation with high professionalism as he managed to inform ground control and safely steer the flight across the Tasman Sea back towards Kuala Lumpur.

The Mirror reported that the New Zealand traffic control team, the Airways is currently investigating the incident and will cooperate with the Malaysian Airlines team to conduct a thorough investigation regarding the incident.

"We have an internal safety team who will investigate it. The flight plan the airline filed with us was going to Kuala Lumpur but via a slightly different route than the pilot was expecting, a company spokesman told reporters.

Early investigation revealed that both the pilot and the Auckland's Air Traffic Control team had been inadvertently given a different flight plan according to Stuff.

A statement released by the Malaysia Airlines said that "Our flight MH132 from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur was given the latest flight plan by the airline's Operations Dispatch Centre (ODC) whilst Auckland's Air Traffic Control (ATC) was inadvertently given an earlier flight plan."

In other words, the airlines work by giving the flight route plan to the Airways which will then passed on the information to the air traffic controller in New Zealand.

The air traffic team will be responsible for directing the flight takes off and landing based on the number of flight occurred in both airport in New Zealand and Malaysia together with the traffic occurred in the air.

According to the Malaysian Airlines, the passengers' safety was not jeopardized at all during the entire event as the flight is still in contact with the ground team and is flying under the radar the whole time. Some observers had also speculated that the disappearance of the airline's previous MH370 could be due to the same problem.