A flight to Malaysia from Sydney was diverted to Melbourne after its pilot entered

incorrect coordinates of the plane's starting position, an Australian aviation

investigation report has found.

Carrying 212 passengers, the AirAsia flight bound for Kuala Lumpur on March 10,
2015, was flying in the wrong direction after takeoff from Sydney, because the pilot
had manually entered the wrong coordinates of the plane's position into the flight's
onboard navigation systems.
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Melbourne, Australia
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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It was the first of several errors the flight crew made that day, according to the
report (PDF) the Australian Transport Safety Bureau published Wednesday.
Faulty earmuffs prompted the captain and the first officer to swap their preflight
duties. The captain usually conducts an external inspection, while the first officer
remains in the cockpit to complete preparation procedures.
When manually entering the coordinates of the plane's position, the pilot incorrectly
entered the longitude from a sign outside the cockpit window as 01519.8 east (15
degrees 19.8 minutes east) instead of 15109.8 east (151 degrees 9.8 minutes east),
the report said.
"This resulted in a positional error in excess of 11,000 kilometers (6,835 miles),
which adversely affected the aircraft's navigation systems and some alerting
systems," the report said.
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The crew had "a number of opportunities to identify and correct the error," the
report said, but didn't notice the problem until after the plane became airborne and
started tracking in the wrong direction. Several message alerts and sounds
suggested the error before takeoff, but the crew ignored them, according to the
report.
Once the captain and the first officer realized the mistake, they tried to fix the
system. But it was too late.
"Attempts to troubleshoot and rectify the problem resulted in further degradation of
the navigation system, as well as to the aircraft's flight guidance and flight control
system," the report said.

As systems failed further, the crew asked to return to Sydney and conduct a landing
without the use of navigation systems. However, weather conditions in Sydney
forced the plane to land in Melbourne instead.
The plane spent three hours on the ground in Melbourne before eventually
departing for the Malaysian capital.
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In a statement obtained by CNN, AirAsia X said all aircraft have been equipped with
upgraded flight management systems since the incident.
"AirAsia X would like to stress that we have in place robust management systems to
monitor and prevent similar incidents from reoccurring," a representative said.
"We also wish to reiterate that we have regularly passed safety and security audits
conducted by various international regulators. ... We remain committed to ensuring
our compliance to all safety and security regulations."