AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ7633 suffers technical glitch

KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Indonesia confirmed last night that its flight QZ7633 from Surabaya to Bandung scheduled for departure at 9pm (local time) today made a decision to return-to-apron (RTA) due to a technical glitch.
In a statement, AirAsia Indonesia said flight QZ7633 using an Airbus A320-200 (registration PK-AZC), carrying a total of 161 passengers had experienced an 'Auxilliary Power Unit (APU) auto shutdown during pushback'.
"The captain returned to the gate as the aircraft had to undergo further checks for safety reasons," it said.
APU is a device located at the tail part of an aircraft that provides energy for electrical Power and Pneumatic systems when the aircraft is on the ground before the main engine starts, the statement said.
APU has a protection system which automatically shuts the APU down when it detects any system malfunctions such as overspeed, low oil pressure, oil filter problems or oil overheating to ensure safe operations.
AirAsia Indonesia chief executive officer Sunu Widyatmoko said the captain of the flight had fulfilled the standard operating procedure (SOP) by making the decision to RTA in order to ensure operational safety.
"Further checks were completed by our engineering team according to their standard operating procedures," he said.
"After the final check was completed, the aircraft was released to fly about an hour later, despite the sensationalised coverage, there were no safety issues and the aircraft landed safely in Bandung," he added.
AirAsia Indonesia said it sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused. – Bernama