A report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) blames miscommunication between crew and ground staff for causing the collision of a Malaysia Airlines A330 with an aerobridge at Melbourne Airport on March 31. The ATSB report states that the captain had engaged the plane's parking brake before carrying out an external inspection. When the aircraft maintenance engineer saw the park brake indicator light on the nose landing gear, he assumed the park brake would remain on and removed the main landing gear chocks. This was determined to be “out of sequence with the relevant procedure” according to the report, and done “without informing the others in the ground crew.” On his return to the flight deck of the A330 the captain released the park brake, unaware the chocks were no longer in position. The aircraft consequently rolled back about 3m and smashed into the aerobridge damaging the forward-left door and hinges.
The ATSB reports stresses that these findings should not be read as “apportioning blame or liability to any particular organisation or individual.”
Malaysia Airlines said that it is in close discussion with the ATSB and that it regularly examines its safety procedures and conducted a thorough debrief following the incident.