Incident the latest in a long long of dramas to plague Malaysian airlines

A SPATE of incidents involving Malaysia-bound aircraft out of Australia has the national transport safety body stretched to the limit.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the latest Gold Coast incident involving an AirAsia X A330, in addition to last week’s engine shutdown off Western Australia, also involving an

AirAsia X A330.

An engine issue has been identified as behind last Sunday’s midair drama en route from Perth to KL, with manufacturer Rolls Royce issuing a statement confirming as much.

Other incidents under investigation by the ATSB include another engine shutdown in an AirAsia X A330 flying from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on August 16, 2016, and a descent below the minimum safe level at the Gold Coast on September 11 last year.

In relation to the August 16 incident, the ATSB noted that the completion of a draft report had been delayed by “competing priorities and workload of the investigator in charge”.

Investigations completed in recent months related to a taxiing incident in Melbourne on September 9, 2016 — again involving an AirAsia X A330 — and a collision with an aerobridge at Melbourne Airport on March 31, 2016 involving a Malaysia Airlines A330.

Then there was the matter of March 10, 2015, in which an AirAsia X pilot received incorrect flight data for a trip from Sydney to KL, and the plane had to be guided by Air Traffic Control to Melbourne.

In addition to the unfortunate spate of incidents, Malaysia Airlines was the victim of an attempted hijacking on a flight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur on May 31. Manodh Marks, 25, of Sri Lanka was charged with endangering the safety of an aircraft and making false threats after allegedly screaming he had a bomb.

Federal Government statistics show Malaysia Airlines suffered a 30.5 per cent decrease in passengers in and out of Australia in 2016. In contrast AirAsia X enjoyed strong growth in the last year.