--- title: AirAsia Plane Ended Up in Melbourne Instead of Malaysia description: The flight from Sydney to Malaysia landed instead in Melbourne because its captain omitted a zero in the destination coordinates canonical: https://time.com/4483384/airasia-plane-malaysia-melbourne-sydney-gps/ author: Feliz Solomon article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-08T03:46:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:16.944Z og:title: An AirAsia Plane Ended Up in Melbourne Instead of Malaysia og:description: Oops og:url: https://time.com/4483384/airasia-plane-malaysia-melbourne-sydney-gps/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ac37d282cff381b/6988a52dcf40a88ce1c44bbf/gettyimages-173164274.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Images Of AirAsia X Aircraft Ahead Of Airline's Listing On The Bursa Malaysia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: An AirAsia Plane Ended Up in Melbourne Instead of Malaysia twitter:description: Oops twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ac37d282cff381b/6988a52dcf40a88ce1c44bbf/gettyimages-173164274.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Jet Ended Up in Melbourne Instead of Malaysia After the Pilot Entered the Wrong Navigation Code by [Feliz Solomon](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon Sep 8, 2016 3:46 AM UTC  An aircraft operated by AirAsia X taxis at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, on July 6, 2013 An aircraft operated by AirAsia X taxis at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, on July 6, 2013Goh Seng Chong—Bloomberg / Getty Images by [Feliz Solomon](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon Sep 8, 2016 3:46 AM UTC An AirAsia X flight from Sydney to Malaysia last year [landed instead in Melbourne](http://www.smh.com.au/business/aviation/airasia-x-flight-from-sydney-to-malaysia-ends-up-in-melbourne-after-navigational-error-20160907-gratv6.html) after the plane’s navigational system started going haywire, all because its captain accidentally omitted a single zero when he entered the destination’s coordinates. The plane took off without a hitch just before noon on March 10, 2015, but the crew noticed something was amiss when it turned and started heading in the wrong direction. The incident was revealed Wednesday in a report by Australia’s Air Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), cited by the _Sydney Morning Herald._ The report said the typo “knocked out” several key navigational systems. The single erroneous digit had the system convinced that the plane was near the South African city of Cape Town — nearly 7,000 miles away. The plane’s autopilot and auto-thrust features were disabled, the _Herald_ reports, and the pilot was guided to Melbourne by air-traffic controllers. Once the problem was diagnosed, the plane was able to continue to Malaysia as planned, albeit a few hours late. The ATSB said that “position initialization” errors happen approximately twice a year. \[[_SMH_](http://www.smh.com.au/business/aviation/airasia-x-flight-from-sydney-to-malaysia-ends-up-in-melbourne-after-navigational-error-20160907-gratv6.html)\] AirAsia Plane Ended Up in Melbourne Instead of Malaysia ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4483384/airasia-plane-malaysia-melbourne-sydney-gps/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4483384/airasia-plane-malaysia-melbourne-sydney-gps/"},"headline":"A Jet Ended Up in Melbourne Instead of Malaysia After the Pilot Entered the Wrong Navigation Code","datePublished":"2016-09-08T03:46:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:16.944Z","description":"The error was due to the omission of a single digit in position coordinates","url":"https://time.com/4483384/airasia-plane-malaysia-melbourne-sydney-gps/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Australia","Aviation","Malaysia","AirAsia"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ac37d282cff381b/6988a52dcf40a88ce1c44bbf/gettyimages-173164274.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Feliz Solomon","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ac37d282cff381b/6988a52dcf40a88ce1c44bbf/gettyimages-173164274.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Images Of AirAsia X Aircraft Ahead Of Airline's Listing On The Bursa Malaysia","caption":"Images Of AirAsia X Aircraft Ahead Of Airline's Listing On The Bursa Malaysia","creditText":"Goh Seng Chong—Bloomberg / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4483384/airasia-plane-malaysia-melbourne-sydney-gps/","name":"A Jet Ended Up in Melbourne Instead of Malaysia After the Pilot Entered the Wrong Navigation Code"}}]}] ```